Let’s be clear about Tyler Hamilton

There’s been a lot of comments on Tyler Hamilton’s admission of clinical depression and the subsequent doping positive. Many have made light of the situation and said that the only reason that he’s depressed is because he got caught.

Let’s look at the facts here:

• Hamilton had been seeking professional treatment since 2003. Symptoms of the disease go back to his childhood.
• His mother and sister have both fought clinical depression.
• His maternal grandmother committed suicide.
• He was on prescription meds.
• He had a bad patch of depression when he was dealing with breast cancer in his mother.
• He also got divorced and had a dog die in the past couple of years.
• He doubled up on his meds, had bad side effects, stopped the medicine for a while, then tried the over the counter medicine.
• He knew the DHEA was in there. The need to feel better was stronger than the need to stay out of trouble with doping authorities.

Would it have somehow been more noble if Hamilton had killed himself in the middle of RR’s pre-TOC training camp?

Did we want him to go the way of Marco Pantani?

I’d prefer that he be alive. If anything good can come out of this, if he can help one person that is suffering from depression, it’s worth it.

Depression is NOT feeling sad, it’s not the “blues.” Dick Cavett suffered from the disease and said this:

“When people say to you: hey, shape up! Stop thinking only about your troubles. What’s to be depressed about? Go swimming or play tennis and you’ll feel a lot better. Pull up your socks! And how you, hearing this, would like nothing more than to remove one of those socks and choke them to death with it.”

Again from Cavett:

“The malady doesn’t care if you’re broke and alone or successful and surrounded by a loving family. It does its democratic dirty work to your brain chemistry regardless of your “position.””

Finally:

“Apparently one thing I said on “Larry King” back then hit home hard. It was that when you’re downed by this affliction, if there were a curative magic wand on the table eight feet away, it would be too much trouble to go over and pick it up.”

Tags: clinical depression, dhea, dick cavett, Rock Racing, smiling through, Tyler Hamilton