SSR and Aaron Hernandez — And the Invisible Mental Illness Epidemic

The story of Aaron is well documented. An extremely talented and successful American footballer, who was in the news for all wrong reasons — violence, murder, conviction, jail term, and suicide — only days after being acquitted.

But this is not a story about the potboiler which it is, even by the standards of the USA where 10,000+ die from gunshot wounds each year, and who leads the world in several people incarcerated. Rather it is a quest on why Aaron did what he did.

While the reasons may not be fully known (Aaron’s brain has been preserved and analyzed), it is sure that there was something unreconciled within him, which is expressed as uncontrollable behavior at times.

The talent, the sports exploits, the paycheck, the happy family with a small daughter — all these don’t add up to the allegations.

There is now growing concern and evidence of the impact of the brain for high contact sports where the head is hammered. Like boxing, wrestling, rugby, and the like. Now in sports like football heading is being restrained for kids below 11.

But again this is not so much of the medical condition (which has surprises too in Aaron’s case), but rather the supposed mental health issues.

Having personally had some challenges in the space, and taking timely medical interventions to put things back on track, I wonder whether the Alpha male in Aaron Hernandez prevented seeking help.

Sometime back we saw that the Sushant suicide case was hijacked — for both sensationalism as well as politics. Yes, people too bought into the narrative — it was a great segway to deny that a successful young man can have mental issues.

But with this, India missed a golden opportunity to create awareness in the area of mental challenges. With 20% of the population projected to be in some afflicted in this space, and nominal medical infrastructure to handle it, “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez” is a suggested watch to look at ourselves, our family members, the community at large — and think, what can we do to help these troubled souls who are living a very difficult life.