Patric talks about his depression. In 2020, also due to Covid, the Spanish defender did not go through an easy period. Today, however, he feels like a different and better man. This is his very interesting story on the Lazio Style Channel: “There is little talk about depression and mental health. There are many situations, but also matches in which I didn’t see the ball. Sometimes I was too good. The fact of not saying that I was sick so as not to disappoint and to make others happy and not me. They were all injured, I had to play and for me not playing was disappointing. I said to myself ‘how can I not play just because I’m sick’. It was too easy to give up. At that moment I wasn’t well, but facing that moment made me who I am. Not facing this fear, doing the easy thing, that is, giving up playing, would not have made me so mature. I remember a match with Sassuolo at home, with Bruges in Belgium, I couldn’t see the ball and I wasn’t well. I didn’t understand why. I stopped the ball and passed it to the closest teammate. I finally got over it all. Mental health is everything. Ever since I was a child I have thought that the important thing is to enjoy life and be happy. When you grow up you realize that life is full of difficulties and when you least expect them they arrive.”
Did anyone on the team know about your difficult period?
“Yes, I mentioned it a little. For example, I had panic attacks on planes when we traveled. Sometimes someone laughed, but I wanted to be strong, so that nothing would happen to me. In the end it was a very serious thing and I always kept it to myself. This was a mistake because you need to ask for help first. The last thing I wanted was to play football. If you don’t feel well you can’t do a job like ours. You must be calm and at peace with yourself. I woke up in the morning without the desire to do anything, I had lost the sense of living. I wondered why I had to go to work. I’ve always been a bit of a hypochondriac. The fact of seeing people dying from Covid on TV and I was alone made me ask a thousand questions and made me go into crisis.”
