AJ Lee Says Mental Health Protections Are In Her WWE Contract

AJ Lee is happy to see how WWE has changed its approach to mental health since her first run, with such protections now part of her contract. Lee is a noted advocate for mental health and has spoken at length about how she had a difficult time with it in her initial WWE run that ended in 2014.

Lee returned to the company in September of last year, and she spoke on The Match-Up with Aliyah about how attitudes toward mental health have shifted in the industry and WWE specifically. She pointed out who she couldn’t even talk about her bipolar disorder diagnosis 10 years ago, but now such things are in her contract. You can see highlights below:

On How the Approach On Mental Health Has Changed In Wrestling:

“I’m really proud of how far it’s come. Because I’ve been pretty open about how my last year wrestling was my worst mental health year. Like, I looked like everything in the world and I’m champion and all this stuff, but I was so deeply depressed. And part of my journey after was finding, ‘What’s the right treatment for me?’ And becoming a mental health advocate, and becoming a keynote speaker, like really trying to send this message to not just people in sports, but also communities of color. As a Latina, we don’t talk about our mental health. It’s not a thing that’s accepted in our culture, and there’s so many barriers to treatment.

“So that’s been a huge part of the journey is, sort of opening up people’s eyes to when you come from a certain socioeconomic background or cultural background, or there’s language barriers, or you’re in a health care desert. There’s all these different barriers just to get in the door. And then to not even be represented in clinical trials and research. It’s been this 10-year journey of trying to sort of make people aware of how important that is on so many different levels.”

On the Shift In Mental Health Attitudes In WWE:

“To come back into wrestling and see that they have also opened up their mind. The first thing I wanted to make sure was going to work was, ‘Is my mental health protected? Do I feel safe here? Are you guys aware of what that means to need mental health time off?’ Sort of just like, ‘Is that something that is a priority for that to be a priority?’

“And the conversation was really cool in a way that, I couldn’t even reveal my diagnosis 10 years ago. But now it’s a part of my contract. So that is a really cool, beautiful thing. And I hope all sports can incorporate that, because it is such a different — like you were saying, you do need such exceptional internal health and mental health to just perform safely. So I was so genuinely and pleasantly surprised to see that shift.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Match-Up with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.