In part one of our three-part series, Molly Seidel, an Olympic medalist, talks about her journey with ADHD and OCD as a young athlete. Now, she’s helping others to finish their race.
Professional marathoner and Olympian Molly Seidel was first diagnosed with OCD in college. While that diagnosis helped her start to understand what was happening, it wasn’t until her ADHD diagnosis years later that she was finally able to put all of the pieces together. Her next step was figuring out how to best manage her diagnoses.
“A lot of that comes down to a lot of talk therapy, various somatic therapies,” she said. “And then the big one for me is super regular meditation, mindfulness practice, and breath work.”
Speaking out about her mental health struggles has not always been easy for the elite athlete.
“In some ways it’s been really hard because there aren’t many people talking about this kind of stuff. And I think even just as recently as probably 5 years ago, this just wasn’t talked about,” said Seidel.
Over time, though, she has worked to get past people’s criticism and has heard from others who appreciate her using her platform to talk about mental health.
“It’s those kinds of things that kind of keep me going … there are always going to be the people that criticize [but] I’ve heard every horrible thing at this point. So, honestly, you can’t faze me.”
Watch Part 2 and Part 3 in this series.
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