A New Brunswick junior hockey player is sharing his personal struggles with mental illness in hopes of helping others.
Nick Blagden was diagnosed with chronic depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) two years ago.
“I was this big happy guy, but on the inside, I just didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to have to continue to struggle this way,” Blagden, who is now 19, said in a recent interview.
While Blagden’s diagnosis is relatively recent, his struggles with mental illness had been going on for several years.
Struggles began in 2016
During his first year of high school in 2016, Blagden said he was “going through a lot of emotions and feeling a lot of things,” but never thought it was related to his mental health.
Blagden, who grew up in Greater Saint John, moved to Quebec in 2019 to play for the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) — and that was when things got much worse.
“In Quebec, I struggled the worst I ever have. To be honest, I didn’t know if I was going to make it through. I’d go to sleep and I didn’t want to wake up,” he said.
“It continued like that for about half a year until I decided I’d had enough.”
Blagden told his team trainer how he was feeling and, in February of 2020, received his diagnoses.
The support he received, Blagden said, was outstanding — “more than I could have imagined.”
Blagden shares his story
Things started to look better, he said, and the junior hockey forward knew he wanted to share his story.
“I went through high school in three years and then playing in the QMJHL for three years. You get one speech per year about mental health and it’s just the statistics. It never says ‘this is what I went through, these are my problems and how I dealt with them, and this is where I’m at today,’” said Blagden.
“I feel like if I would’ve had that growing up, I would’ve come out about my issues a lot sooner,” he added.
On Bell Let’s Talk Day in January of 2021, Blagden did just that, sharing a series of tweets about his mental health struggles.
“I knew that doing this would bring me some hope. It would bring me some hope that maybe I could help someone,” he said.
A few months later, in June of that year, writer Craig Eagles shared Blagden’s story in an article written for FDS Podcast Network titled “Just Trying To Win Every Day.”
Junior hockey forward Nick Blagden shares his personal struggles with mental illness with a group of students. (Image submitted)
But Blagden wanted to do more than just share his story. He wanted to become a mental health advocate for others who may be going through what he is.
In August, while playing for the Moncton Wildcats, Blagden started doing speeches for youth in the Greater Moncton area.
“It was nervewracking at first,” he recalled. “I’m not very much of a public speaker, but you get used to it as you go.”
“It’s never easy going there to talk about your story but it’s something that should be easy.”
Blagden was acquired by the Saint John Sea Dogs in January and now hopes to share his message with youth throughout Greater Saint John.
“Doing these speeches and being an advocate, that’s my therapy too,” he said.
“I’m just trying to save one person at a time. All you can really try to do is lend out a hand and hope that someone can grab on.”
