Cody Glass is the latest NHLer to disclose his mental health
Mark Borowiecki gave Glass the bravery to speak up about his own experiences and how an accident, a global epidemic, and not being able to see family and friends in Canada impacted his mental health.
"You have your mental side where you kind of free up your mind during the summertime, but once you get the season started, it's hard to kind of go back to it and take your time off because you're always doing stuff at the rink, you're always working out, you're always skating; it's hard to kind of get alone time and talk to someone or do something like that," Glass said on Thursday.
"I feel like, as a young kid in the League, you're scared to talk to people and I feel like that's where I kind of went wrong. Maybe my rookie season I didn't really talk to anybody. I kind of kept everything to myself, but I feel like talking to other young kids, it's OK to talk to someone and get stuff off your chest, even if it's not a coach, if it's just someone away from the rink. I feel like that's a big part that's coming into our League right now. You see [Montreal forward] Jonathan Drouin, and he's kind of stepped out and said stuff about him and his mindset with everything. You need to take a step away [sometimes], but I feel like that's a big thing with hockey that people don't really realize."
"I think it's getting a lot better now, especially in the dressing room. I feel like we have a very good system here, especially Nashville, with people to talk to, and that's what I've noticed right from the start. And there's a ton of people always reaching out to you, which is nice, and with this locker room, everybody feels so comfortable and it's so easy to talk to everybody. That's something I loved about coming to this dressing room, and around the League, I feel like more people are speaking out.
"That's a good thing for the League, because I think people just don't see it, and it does eat at people. Being in the NHL, you expect a lot of yourself, and you want to be that guy that plays a ton of years in the NHL. When it's not going your way, you kind of get down on yourself, and everybody starts getting down on yourself. It's a wild League, and I feel like just taking those moments to kind of take a deep breath and talk to someone goes a long way."
