(Photo by Andrew Weber/Getty Images)
Johnny Manziel has been making the media rounds recently, which means one thing and one thing only: Comeback Szn is officially underway.
Appearing on the football podcast “Pardon My Take” and the daytime talk show “Good Morning America”, Manziel appears to be in FULL public image recuperation mode, saying and doing all the right things (it also helps that he doesn’t look like a drug addict anymore).
While the PMT interview was far more in-depth, the “Good Morning America” interview had the biggest bombshell of Manziel’s media tour, as he revealed he was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had been self-medicating with alcohol.
Manziel now claims to be completely sober, no longer using alcohol as “self-medication.”
via ABC:
“I was self-medicating with alcohol. That’s what I thought would make me happy and get out of that depression,” Manziel said. “When I would wake up the next day after a night like that, going on a trip like that, and you wake up the next day and that is all gone, that liquid courage, or that liquid … sense of euphoria that is over you, is all gone You are left staring at the ceiling by yourself, and in that depression and back in that hole, that dark hole of sitting in a room by yourself, super depressed, thinking about all the mistakes you made in your life,” he added. “What did that get me? Where did that get me except out of the NFL? Where did that get me? Disgraced?”
Manziel said he has also started to make his mental health “a priority in my life,” adding that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder about a year ago.
“I am taking medication for bipolar, and I am working to try to make sure I don’t fall back into any type of depression, because I know where that leads me and I know how slippery a slope that is for me,” he said.
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To his credit, Manziel actually seems quite contrite. As someone who is the same age as Johnny, let me tell you this: the difference in maturity from age 22 to age 25 is like night and day. Back when I was 22, I was drinking four nights a week, no questions asked. Now that I’m 25, I go out one a week maximum. While that’s no excuse for Johnny’s past mistakes, it should offer hope going forward that he actually has grown up and can finally fulfill the potential we all know he has.
