Candice Michelle Discusses Her Health Issues

Candice Michelle discusses the health issues that have kept her away from wrestling.

Michelle signed with WWE after she competed in the RAW Diva Search in 2004. She won the WWE Women’s Championship once, and she was ultimately released in 2009. Since then, Michelle has rarely returned to the wrestling world, aside from her appearance on WWE’s RAW Reunion show in 2019.

In an interview with Steve Fall of WrestlingNewsCo, Michelle explained that she has taken a step back from the business as she has focused on her priorities as a mother, along with her personal life as a whole. She also stated that she has been dealing with heath issues, but she’s coming out of them now.

“For me personally, I think that I’ve really taken such a step back in my personal life,” Michelle said. “I have three kids, I haven’t been present on social media like a lot of the other former wrestlers. I’ve really dived into my personal live and raising these children, and now just going into where my career’s going next, and that hasn’t really been live on social media so much. So I think maybe just missing that connection of them, ‘Who are you now? What are you doing now? What do you look like now?’ It’s just me kind of getting back into that present world. I’ve gone through many transitions recently and had some health issues lately. So it’s actually good that it’s not my time right now, but I’m coming out of that, so maybe next year is the time when it happens.”

Michelle went on to detail how she dealt with a series of panic attacks, which started when she went to the mall. She noted that the experience took a lot out of her as she compared it to running a marathon with your body and your mind.

“A year and a half ago, COVID happened for everybody, and most people just were worried about getting sick from COVID,” Michelle said. “I personally didn’t have that worry. I personally didn’t have that worry. I’m very health-oriented, I’ve been running a chiropractic health organization for 20 years now. But we have this transition of, we lived in LA for 23 years, and we decided that we were supposed to move to Texas. This was not an easy transition. This is us, we’re living the American Dream, had a practice that was running beautifully, kids were in their schools, life was good, and I just knew that our next step in life, our vision to serve, was supposed to be here in Texas. So we sold everything, we moved my family of five and a big boxer into an RV, and then we went, ‘Let’s make this fun.’ So we did 21 stops, all the way from California to Texas, and national parks and exploring. But every week, my husband had to fly back to work, so I would manage the kids and the dog. It was wonderful to have this special time, but at the same time, I fell off my rituals a little, not really having my green shakes and drinking my water and doing my exercise the way I would.

“I was in Junction, Colorado, having a beautiful day, and I went to the mall. I wasn’t feeling good, and I was like, ‘I’m not feeling good. Maybe I need to have lunch. I haven’t had lunch yet.’ So I get lunch for me and my kids, my three daughters. We’re sitting at a table, and I can just feel it not going so good. I was like, ‘Maybe it’s blood sugar.’ I don’t have any issues with blood sugar, but I know people say when your blood sugar is low, have some candy. So I said go get me a candy out of the candy machine, and I couldn’t even eat it. I saw this baker in a cupcake shop, and I just went straight to him, and I said, ‘Is there a medic in the mall? I’m not okay, I have three kids. I’m in a strange place. I have no family, friends, and I’m not okay. Can you come help me?’ He said, ‘I’ll call security.’ I sat down, and before you know it, I’m on the ground, convulsing. I don’t pass out, but I’m not conscious. I can’t open my eyes, but I can’t see anything. I just keep saying, ‘I have three kids, I have three kids.’ 911 comes, I go to the hospital. Run all the tests, X-rays, and they say you had a panic attack. I said, ‘Panic attack? From what? I was having a good day. I was having a good day, I wasn’t worried anything, I wasn’t scared about anything. Why did I have that?’ Then that happened after that was the most shocking thing for me. I had an attack every single day for the next four months. Every single day. It’s basically like your body and your mind run a marathon every time you have an attack. So I was just beat to a pulp.”

Michelle then detailed the process of trying medications and supplements before she shared that she had level three adrenal fatigue. She discussed the challenging aspects of the situation and admitted that it was a tough journey.

“I started, ‘What’s happening with me?’ I tried medications,” Michelle said. “That’s not my first protocol, but I was like, ‘I’m dying. I’m not okay.’ Those made me worse. So I tried a different one, and then I’m on supplements. Before you know it, I’m getting brain scans done to see what’s going on in my brain, and we found out I basically, I hit rock bottom. I had level three adrenal fatigue, I had no hormones in my body from the stress. It’s basically [like] I was living in fight or flight for this entire journey. To build that up, I can’t replace my adrenals with a supplement if I have no hormones in my body. If I take hormones, the stress eats it before it deposits into my body. So I’ve been on a vicious cycle for a year and half. I couldn’t take my kids to school. I take one to school, pull over, I have to go through a panic attack to get my next kids to school. My husband was transitioning still, his work was in LA, so I’m full-time by myself, not feeling safe. It has just worn me out. Talk about visiting the depths of hell, and really mentally not stable. I really had to go through that journey, which has been really tough.” (H/t Fightful for the transcription)

After she discussed this experience, Michelle stated that she is now coming out on the other side, and she helps others as a crisis coach.