It’s been a year since Rhea Ripley was last on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia and that was when the NXT star opened up about the mental health issues she happened to have. From depression to self-harm, Ripley went through a lot of mental anguish growing up and it was with Lilian when she first decided to talk about it publicly. Now with one wild year in the rearview mirror, Rhea reflects on how taking those troubles out in the open felt to her as Lilian believes it’s been a major help to people going through the same issues.
“It feels like a weight that’s been lifted off my shoulders,” Ripley said. “Just like talking about it as well which is nice. I’m very glad that the conversation went that way cause like you said there is a lot of bullying and suicides especially like in the sport and it’s really, really sad. Like I always see posts coming up every now and then of like someone new that has passed away and it makes me really mad and sad cause like like they could have help…”
Garcia notes that Ripley sharing her experience with cutting was just a week removed from Toni Storm doing the same on Chasing Glory. Both being from Australia, Ripley and Storm have been friends for nearly ten years but never knew that about one another. Garcia asked Ripley if she and Toni have talked about having those similar experiences.
“We talked a little bit about it. With Toni cause I have known her for so long like we’ve been friends since we were 16 years old, I sort of like, I’ve seen the marks and stuff, but I’ve always asked her about them but she’s always come up with different stories for them so to find out that it is from that, I want to say that I’m surprised, but at the same time I’m not but I’m glad that we have each other and we’re both here cause Australia’s a long way away and it’s very lonely here at times so I’m glad that she’s now here and we can help each other out, especially knowing each other’s stories like now, so yeah.”
Ripley believes that she has learned a lot about herself over the course of such a short time and knows that talking about mental health is so imperative to growing as a person.
“I know that growing up I used to bottle a lot of things in and I would not tell anyone about anything that I was feeling until one day I would just snap and absolutely lose my mind and it would create fights with my friends, with my parents with other family members and it wasn’t fun. It wasn’t a good time where now I’ve obviously matured. I’m still not very old but I’ve definitely matured a lot faster than I should have and I do know that you should talk about this sort of stuff like communication is key cause if you let it go into the world then you’re really like letting it go, you know? And it’s been a long journey but I finally understand that now.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
Check out the full episode of Chasing Glory below:
