Footy star Drew Mitchell opens up about the devastating mental health problem that left him with an incurable condition – and how he’s beating it with a very unorthodox treatment

EXCLUSIVE

Former Wallaby Drew Mitchell was able to fulfill his childhood dream of playing the sport he loved, but on the day his career ended, he faced a new challenge: fear.

Mitchell earned 71 caps for Australia, played 112 Super Rugby matches for three clubs and featured in a further 82 matches for Toulon in France.

Now he tells Ny Breaking Australia about the extreme lows that followed his retirement, and how medical cannabis helped him reclaim his life.

It started in 2017 when Mitchell hung up the boots for the last time and started feeling the symptoms of anxiety that manifested in simple moments, like meeting friends for dinner.

‘Anxiety started to manifest itself in social environments, I became really anxious when I went to a restaurant. If my friends weren’t already there, I didn’t want to walk into a restaurant first in case there wasn’t a table for me. go to,” he said.

‘Little things that I normally wouldn’t have worried about started becoming problems for me.

‘That started to express itself in fear and from there it started to manifest itself in other parts of my life.

“Then it wasn’t just the social environments, it started to affect my daily life.”

Fear began to invade Mitchell’s life, including sleep, as he felt a debilitating sensation in his legs.

This incurable condition is known as restless leg syndrome and causes patients to experience a very strong urge to move their legs when they would rather be still.

“Is that some kind of jelly leg feeling? People talk about doing the kung fu in the sheets… there is no calm about that,” he said.

‘I also think a lot, so sometimes my thoughts are racing, so that affects my sleep when I go to bed at night.

‘Exhausted as I am, I can’t turn off my thoughts.

“Other times I would get physically sick when I go somewhere and the anxiety gets a little too much. “I’m going to have to excuse myself to go to the bathroom because I’m sick,” he said.

‘There were a few times at the end of the drive where I particularly had to pull the car over and have a big cry.

“I was just blown away by it.”

Mitchell knew he needed a change and has worked in various media and corporate roles since his retirement, while also enjoying talking about sports on podcasts.

However, he admitted he lacked the direction, focus and discipline that comes with professional rugby, which didn’t help his mounting anxiety.

“When the fear happened, I don’t think it was a coincidence when I stopped playing football,” he said.

“For a long time I had a purpose, I felt comfortable in my own environment, I had goals to go out and pursue.

“I knew what my next year would look like, five years, 10 years or whatever it was until I retired.

“I’m now in this new space where I had to find a new career, a new passion.

‘Finding a new passion if you have literally been able to make your dream come true for the past fifteen years is quite difficult.

“So anything you get into always feels like it pales in comparison to how much you’re into it and how much it means to you.

‘That brings with it a bit of doubt: am I going to find something that I am just as enthusiastic about? As challenged with? All that stuff I did with my rugby.”

So Mitchell sought conventional medical interventions, which helped for a while.

He overcame the stigma of seeking help from a therapist and found a guiding light that he considers his personal life coach.

“I’ve always thought that in life you have a teacher and coach in everything, crawling, walking, ABC’s, 123’s, for me as a junior passing a footy, whatever it may be.

‘But I’ve never actually had a teacher or coach for life other than those closest to me.

“But often the feedback I received from those close to me was always biased, it wasn’t as brutal as I needed it to be, or perhaps they weren’t also equipped with the tools I needed to overcome the situations I found myself in.

‘To overcome that, I initially thought of my therapist as a kind of life coach, helping me overcome the stigma of sitting on the couch and opening up.

‘That certainly helped to some extent, but hey, life is tough sometimes. Sometimes it comes over you.’

The next step was medication, but pharmaceuticals didn’t agree with the former Wallaby, who felt the pills eased his anxiety but also darkened the moments that filled him with joy.

That’s when he explored the possibility of medical cannabis, which is widely used to treat a number of conditions such as inflammation, insomnia, eating disorders and anxiety.

That’s why he teamed up with leading Australian medical cannabis innovator Medibis to participate in a groundbreaking clinical trial using a cannabis formulation as an effective treatment for anxiety.

“I kept seeing medical cannabis popping up, whether it was in the news, in the paper, on social media, whatever it may be,” Mitchell said.

‘So I started looking into it a little more and eventually I met the Medibis team.

“Then I thought, you know what, let’s just try the doctor’s consultation.

“So I did my consultation and talked about pretty much a lot of the stuff in a little bit more depth that we’ve been talking about now.

‘From there, a number of CBD oils (cannabidiol) were prescribed. I’ve tried CBD before, but during this doctor’s consultation I was able to write a script for a mixture of CBD and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana).”

It was a big step for Mitchell, who came from a life as a professional athlete and had never tried recreational marijuana before.

What he found surprised him. The products didn’t produce a high like recreational cannabis, but instead provided a natural sense of calm that helped him get his life back on track.

“I had some reservations initially because there is also a stigma attached to marijuana,” he said.

‘I had never taken part in it before. I just wanted to know a little more about it, and once they prescribed it, all I had to do was understand the correct dosage.

“I just take it in oil form or the CBD in gummies.

‘It just felt like I had a bit more of a direct impact, it had a much more calming influence on me.

“I could still feel those highs and joy, but it just felt like sometimes I wasn’t as out of control as I was before.

‘I’ve had some really positive effects from it and I’m enjoying what it’s helping me with at the moment.’