Former Vancouver Canucks puckstopper afflicted with obsessive-compulsiive disorder, a mental health issue that nearly derailed his pro hockey career
Less than a day after he and his New York Ranger teammates drank out of hockey’s silver chalice to end a 54-year championship drought with their 1994 win over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7, Hirsch couldn’t leave New York fast enough.
Having lived through his own struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder , Hirsch was in Prince George this week as the keynote speaker in a lunchtime address at the Mental Health and Addictions Symposium at the Prince George Conference and Civic Centre. “I got this thought, what if you don’t die,” Hirsch said. “What if you go over the edge and you’re stuck with these thoughts the rest of your life, another OCD thought. OCD thoughts put me there and OCD thoughts saved my life.”
Changing attitudes toward mental health issues was needed in NHL During Hirsch’s era, pro sports teams didn’t hire health professionals and sports psychologists to look after the mental concerns of their players as they do now. Showing those struggles back then was considered a sign of weakness. Despite his lax attitude to off-season workouts leading in to his first season with the Canucks he ended up on the NHL All-Rookie team. But the daily anxiety attacks returned. He lost his appetite and he dropped to just 145 pounds. He ordered a meal in restaurant in New York and couldn’t eat it and his teammates had no idea what was wrong. He was heading into a full-blown panic attack and during the morning skate, Hirsch told Canucks trainer Mike Burnstein he was suicidal.
In Hirsch’s case, one of the most obvious warning signs was his need to withdraw from friends and family members and he chose to self-isolate to hide his condition, the reason he skipped the Rangers’ Stanley Cup parade. Other signs are erratic sleep habits, being late for appointments, a change in circle of friends, a drop in student grades, struggling to engage in conversation and substance abuse.
Hirsch was living the dream in 1994. The Rangers loaned him to Hockey Canada so he could play in the Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Pegged to finish fifth or sixth, the Canadians surprised everyone when they got to the gold-medal final against Sweden, a game ultimately decided on 20-year-old Peter Forsberg’s one-handed deke in the seventh round of the shootout. Paul Kariya had a chance to tie for Canada but missed.
Hirsch first shared his OCD story publicly in an article he wrote for the Players’ Tribune website and it went viral. Within an hour of it being posted the story had a million hits. Speaking tours helping Hirsch shed stigmas of mental health Hirsch now works with the 4,500-member Independent Contractors and Business Association and 90 per cent of those companies have reported to the ICBA they are affected by mental health challenges.
Nearly 40 per cent of long-term disability claims in Canadian workplaces are related to mental health. While employers have gotten more educated about resources available to treat those conditions and are more accepting of their role to provide that help, Hirsch says there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
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