Getting Open with Alexander Mattison

things mental health. Over the past several weeks, we have talked to a number of people connected to the Vikings organization, from players to general manager Rick Spielman and Chief Operating Officer Andrew Miller, really about their personal experiences and their thoughts on mental health and also their desire to break down the stigma and just really normalize the conversation around mental illness and the way that it affects so many

people in their day to day lives. Today, I'm really excited to sit down with Alexander Madison, who's going to share a little bit about the way a college experience has opened his eyes to the world of mental health and really given him a passion to raise awareness for suicide prevention. Alex you and I obviously talked earlier this winter about mental health and suicide awareness. Can you just explain again for us about your connection with Tyler Helenski

and how his passing has really impacted you. Yeah, yeah, So back in twenty seventeen. We played Washington State earlier on in the season and we went into a triple overtime that game and lost that game. And you know, I just it's kind of one of those unexplainable feelings where you know, you just go into a game where there's that much emotion poured out onto the field, there's obviously going to be room for an emotional connection left, you know, across the field. So that's just one of

the things you see in his history unfold. He's a Southern California guy, just like myself, and you know, great, great athletic talent, and from you know what, the things that we hear, you know, he's a great young man as well, and just to hear that happened was just something that it hurt deeper than what I you know, what I would have ever thought, just because I didn't

personally know him that well. But just like I said, being out there on that field and going to war like that, you leave room for an emotional connection and there's that respect from the other side of the ball. Thanks for sharing that. And I think when the news came out that Tyler committed suicide, I think it rocked

a lot of people. And I think part of the reason for that is as a society, I think it's really easy for us to have a mindset that you know, this person is successful, he's an athlete, if they're at the pro level. You know he has money, he's physically fit, you know they have it all. Maybe that that tends to be an easy mindset to have. He must not have a worry in the world. As an athlete yourself, who has witnessed goes the others experience and are now

at the pro level football, what would you say to that? UM, I would definitely say that we're all human, whether you know we play professional sports, or whether it's CEO of a company, or whether you're you're not any of those. Um, everyone's human and everyone has the same problems, the same issues to deal with and pan out on a personal level.

So you know, whether that's your own personal issues and problems and emotions that you have to navigate through, UM, that's your life, that's your story, that's your path and your journey. And I think that you know a lot of people might stick to you know, well, you play football and you know you have to be this big, strong man out there on the field all the time, and that you know, that doesn't always have to translate

to off the field. You know, we we have emotions and we have things in life that we have to deal with, so um it can be taken for granted just as easy as a player as it can be a non professional athlete. I think that's exactly right what you're just talking about, and that really leads into my next question too, because I think throughout this whole series, we've been talking about the stigma right that surrounds mental illness, and especially it seems to be seen at possibly an

even deeper level among athletics. You mentioned that kind of expectation to be a big, strong man on the field. Can you elaborate a little bit on that on why that stigma is the way it is among athletes. Yeah, I believe that, you know, there's just there's just an unknown rule that you can't show emotions that you know, if you do, you're soft, If you you know, they'll they'll tag you with the terms of not being an elite athlete. Whatever it might be there your career, you're

everything that you've worked for. In a moment of weakness, it's not really supposed to be seen as weakness. It's a moment of dealing with emotions and feeling emotions, but it's been tagged with weakness and softness, and you know, that's obviously the opposite of what you would expect the

game of foot wall to be. So I think that just the fact that people dealing with emotions get tagged with that it shouldn't be that way, especially because in this world where there's so much that goes on, and you know, life can take you one way and then

take you the other way the next second. So in my opinion, I don't think that stigma is right, and that we all have emotions that we have to deal with and some people can deal with them better than others, but at the end of the day, it's not healthy

to hold all that in. And that's where you're seeing a lot of athletes coming out and expressing themselves nowadays, because there have been a lot lot of athletes that just become over overwhelmed with so much, so many emotions, so many things, the weight of the world on their shoulders, and you know, we're just kind of forced to deal with it in a way that no one else can see us hurting. No one else can see us filling

those emotions. In the previous segment of Getting Open, we talked to Adam and Caitlin Feeling in their Feeling Foundation. Really it focuses on how much mental illness in youth has increased so much, and that's kind of a topic that goes overlooked sometimes. So when you're talking about how the tide is kind of starting to turn, you know,

they're athletes across the NFL, including your teammates. I know I've seen some stories from other leagues as well of these athletes who are sharing their own experiences around mental health. How much of an impact do you think that can have, especially on the younger generation. Oh man, I think I think it can be extremely impactful for especially the youth. Just simply for athletes, professional athletes to use their platform and share their stories and you know, promote the importance

of mental health. That's something that goes a long way, not only for adults who are dealing with you know, bills and stress and all of these things, but kids as well, especially during this time or doing school online, and you know, there's all these different things that kids have to deal with as far as growing up and those emotions and all of those things that you go through that sometimes not and anyone can just understand that some adults can't really understand and put themselves in that

that perspective of some of these things that these kids have to go through because none of us had to do school online and couldn't go outside and play with our friends and things like that and those types of environments.

So for me, I think that using our platform and being able to share our stories is something that kids can look at and anyone that's dealing with anything, they can look at that and say, I'm not alone, and I'm not the only one that has had these emotions and had these feelings, and how can I get out of this dark place that I'm feeling like I'm in And they can look up to some of the players or some of the important people in their life that they look up to, and they can hear these stories

and relate to them, and they can find their way out of that dark place. In another recent episode, we talked with the Vikings journal manager Rick Spielman, and he really emphasized the importance of mental health within the organization and how much he cares about the topic and wanting to make sure that that players and staff alike, you know, coaches have the resources that they need. I guess what does it mean to you to be part of an organization that does show support for this type of topic

and empowers you guys to share your stories. It means a lot to me. That's one of the things that I love about this organization is that they care so much. And you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't want it to

be any other way. Just to know that they are very supportive and the things that their players are passionate about is something that is really inspiring to me and definitely just helps me want to use my voice and use my platform even more knowing that I have that support system behind me and I you've talked about in the years since Tyler's passing, you've been passionate about just learning more about mental health and learning more about suicide

and suicide prevention. What are maybe a couple of things that you have learned, you know, in your own research about those topics. I've dug pretty deep and just just finding out a lot about the small things that I can help someone turn their mental health around, and someone that's not very aware of their mental health and how that can creep up on you. And you know, I didn't even realize years ago that I was in a position where I noticed my mental health was was was

not good. I was in a place where, you know, things were just going bad for me left and right, and I'm just like, why, you know, the universe feels like it's just crushing in on me, sending home, sending home money, my stipend checks and things like that to help my parents, my car breaking down, losing friends, all of these things are just happening and happening, happening, And I realized that I was trying to fix everything myself and trying to get answers and solve problems with answers

that aren't even there. And so a lot of the times I realized that, you know, people can find themselves trying so hard and forgetting to check on themselves, checking on you know, everyone else but themselves, and trying to figure out everything without trying to really find out what

they can do to help their situation. And so, um, yeah, there's a lot of different things like yoga and getting the right amount of sunlight, the proper foods to eat, you don't want to make sure that you're feeding your body with the proper nutrients and all those things they all come together full circle to help your mental health

and help you navigate through life. So just to follow up on that, were those things that you were able to use for yourself when you were going through that hard time or was it a little bit more of a struggle, and then you kind of learned these these techniques later on to maybe help you if if that comes up again. So I started doing a yoga that's something that the team had for us, and that that

helped me a lot. But really in that moment, I just let go and let God and you know, I have strong faith in God and his plan for me, and that's kind of where I just handed the baton and cast all my burdens onto him and everything started

to work out for me. And then, you know, looking into it deeper, that's when I started to really find out how can I help myself and set myself up to be in a better position so that when adversity hits, you know, I'm prepared for it and my mental health is strong enough and everything's aligned to where I can

try and navigate through as easy as possible. And something else that we've talked a lot about is support systems, and you mentioned even helping to support your parents and things and just kind of the hardship that that was. But I know how close you are with your family, and you've talked a lot about that. What has a support system looked like in your life, you know, whether family, friends,

What does that look like for you? For me, I have an extremely extremely strong support system my mom and dad, my brothers, and then my aunt and uncle and my cousins, and you know, we're just a really tight knit family. I was raised in the church. I was raised to ignore all of the bad things going on around me. So you know, my parents they kept me and my brothers strictly down the path of you know, school and sports and just you know, trying to do the right

things and stay out of the troubles. And so you know, I give all credits to them for for raising me the way that I am, and my family just being so tight and everyone just supporting whatever it is that I wanted to do, whatever it is that my brother wants to do, whatever it is that my cousin wants to do, whatever it is that anyone in our family wants to do or one hundred and ten percent in

and super supportive of each other. And I think that really goes a long way and mental health and and you know, for me, I was at a point where I was kind of hiding my uh you know, just you live in that that lifestyle of that stigma where I was kind of just holding in my emotions and

no one really knows what's going on. And you know, I just know that I have that support system back home, and so some people don't have that, and so I think, you know, it's it's right, and it's the best to encourage people to, you know, support your loved ones, support your family, support your friends, whatever it is that they're going or you might not even know it because they might not wear it on their sleeve like some people do. They might hide it inside what a lot of people do.

So always be that support system, and you know, I just encourage people to just reach out to friends and family and just check on each other because it's hard times. And just in our conversations, I know that you know that is your heart just to help other people and to encourage other people. And that kind of leads into my next question as well, because I want to talk about your brand I Am Gifted. You know you're wearing some of the merchandise right now. I know I have

one of the sweatshirts. I know you were recently back in Boise and being able to share that with other people. Can you tell us a little bit about kind of the message behind your brand and the vision that you have for it in the future. Yeah. So when I think about life, it's what you make of it, and so I just always want to ask myself the question too, what do you want to make of your life? So that's something that people can always just ask themselves, what

do you want to make of your life? And my brand, I really wanted to start a brand that was more than just a logo, more than just my initials tagged on some merchandise or anything. I wanted to be more of a movement, more of something that can mean something to somebody like it means to me. So I came with I Am Gifted. And that's because I wanted to integrate my initials into something that was meaningful and that something that people can support. And with that, I say

that everyone has a gift inside. Everyone's born with a gift. You just have to find it, embrace it, and use it to shed some light into the world. And I think that, you know, wholeheartedly believe that just seeing I Am gifted, you're subliminally telling yourself that you're gifted, and

I think that goes a long way. So I'd like to have merchandise where you know, it says I am gifted, and people can look at that and just in the second of you reading that, whether it was in your head or out loud, you know, passing by, you just hold yourself, I am gifted and just spreading that light, that positivity, that love, there's something I'm super passionate about, and so I just I just really wanted to make sure that my brand means something and that it's more

of a movement. So that's why I really wanted to do that collaboration and emphasizing mental health and suicide prevention so that people around the world that you might be feel like they're in a dark place, they can, you know, look at I Am Gifted and the message behind it and believe in something. Well. I know, I definitely love the mission behind that. The sweatshirt is super comfy too, which is an added bonus, but definitely hope that people go ahead and check that out. So thank you for

sharing more about that with us. And then lastly, I guess just kind of bigger picture, you know, why did you want to be a part of this Getting Open series and what do you hope that people can take from this? Everything's bigger than me, So I want to be a part of something and that's bigger than myself,

and I've been able to do that. I been blessed to be in a position with my platform and being a part of such an amazing organization in the Vikings, and I just wanted to make sure that I was able to be vulnerable so that somebody else can look at that and they can be vulnerable as well. So I think They're Getting Open series is something that's amazing for us to share our stories and for people to

be able to relate. And like I said, I just hope that anyone out there watching, anyone out there listening, and they get the message that you're not alone, and anyone that has anyone around them that is feeling that way, just continue to show that love and support and make sure that you're that support. Sis. Thank you so much, Alex I think that's all I have for you. Awesome,

thank you. Thanks so much to Alex for really being open and honest about his experiences and sharing with us more about his desire to support additional reas sources for mental health as well as continue to raise awareness for suicide prevention. In the coming weeks, keep an eye on all Vikings digital platforms as we continue to roll out our Getting Open series