I Have Battled Anxiety For 10-12 Years: Sachin

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, fondly called ‘God of Cricket’, opened up about the anxiety issues that he had battled for as long as 10-12 years in his more than two decades career. We can totally comprehend when Tendulkar says he had an anxiety disorder as he always had to reproduce better calibre work under public scrutiny. Moreover, anxiety disorders affect an estimated 3.6 per cent of the world’s population and it is fairly commonplace among celebrities/athletes given the demanding nature of their professions.

The Covid times has caused anxiety cases to rise innumerably and mental health is one thing that needs to be tweaked during the crisis. Tendulkar said acceptability is the key in the crisis to avoid going bonkers with anxiety. “Over a period of time I realised that besides preparing physically for a game, you have to prepare yourself mentally also. In my mind, the match started long before I entered the ground. The anxiety levels were very high. I felt the anxiety for 10-12 years, had many sleepless nights before a game,” Tendulkar said.

“Later on I started accepting that it was part of my preparation. I made peace with times I was not able to sleep in the night. I would start doing something to keep my mind comfortable. That “something” included shadow batting, watching TV and playing video games in the early hours of the day. Even making his morning cup of tea helped him prepare for the game,” he added.

“Making tea, ironing my clothes also helped me prepare for the game. I would pack my bag the day before the game, my brother taught me all of it and it became a habit. I followed the same drill even in the last match I played for India,” Tendulkar further said. He reiterated that acceptability is the key here and everywhere. “Not just for the player, for people around him also. Once you have accepted you start looking for solutions.” Covid times gave a lot of people a lot of depression and anxiety issues. But not many are vocal about it. To overcome it, talk about it, try making healthy lifestyles changes, speak to an expert and everything else will fall into place.