Andrew Wiltse, one of the most beloved personalities in the world of Jiu-Jitsu, hasn’t competed in quite a while.
However, that wasn’t due to any sort of a physical injury. Rather, Andrew didn’t compete due to the mental health struggles he has been going through.
The Daisy Fresh representative has never been shy to talk about anything, and so he spoke about what happened to his mental health in a recent interview with the Grappling Insider:
This past year has actually been one of the roughest years that I’ve had in my entire life.
A lot of people missed out on the fact that I had this really public manic episode that happened, like 7, 8, 9 months ago, something like that. But it was actually a huge deal.
I’ve never had my brain shattered in that way before. It just kind of tore me into pieces and I’ve been rebuilding since that point in time.
The manic episode was induced by medication:
My manic episode was actually medication induced. I think without that I’ve been able to manage my bi-polar pretty well, I mostly just deal with depressive episodes.
The manic episodes were not that big of a deal until that one in particular…
It wreck havoc on Wiltse’s life:
The problem was, with manic episodes that are super bad, as high as you go is as low as you’re gonna go. And I went super high.
I actually didn’t sleep for about a week. Genuinely, I did not sleep… I deteriorated rapidly.
It turns out that you really do need to sleep.I hit such a high point in that manic episode that the depression after was crippling.
Luckily, Andrew Wiltse is better now and coming back to the competition podium:
Now I’m starting to come back, now I’m feeling good.
I’m getting in good shape and I’m starting to feel like I’m competition-ready, almost, and I’m getting ready to take a Who’s Number One [match] or something soon.
But the last year has been horrid. 2022 was just not my year.
Make sure to read and watch the entire interview from the Grappling Insider:
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