Former Freiburg player Nils Petersen on going to therapy during his career: It's still uncomfortable, you don't want to go there, but then when you've done it, you say to yourself, "How stupid was...

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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/toprahmen on 2023-08-23 21:44:13.

Original Title: Former Freiburg player Nils Petersen on going to therapy during his career: It’s still uncomfortable, you don’t want to go there, but then when you’ve done it, you say to yourself, “How stupid was I that I never did that?”

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In an interview with DAZN, Nils Petersen opened up about his mental struggles and how therapy has helped him to deal with that:

"I noticed myself that something was wrong: sleep disturbances, mental carousel. Not so dramatic, but especially as a competitive athlete and professional footballer, you’re used to: I do something and then something happens. But at that moment I could try everything, do everything on Google, and it didn’t help. Then I got a contact through the SC and took a therapy session every Thursday. It’s still uncomfortable, you don’t want to go there, but then when you do, you say to yourself, “How stupid was I that I never did that?” You go to the gym so often because you wanted to look good, but I think you exude a lot more charisma and glow when you’re in balance with yourself. But I still went with a baseball cap, you don’t want to be recognized, especially in Freiburg, at that moment you didn’t want that either, but after your career it’s of course easier to stand up for it.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Also worth mentioning that Petersen also put out an autobiography where he goes into more detail regarding this topic. I haven’t read it yet, but I have it on my list

Edit: as reference, since the questions of the interviewer were not in the article: he went to therapy for 1 and a half years