Sydney Pickrem says depression and anxiety will be her constant companions, but she's able to navigate them by thinking of herself as a human first and a swimmer second.
Pickrem, who won a pair of Pan American Games gold medals in Santiago, Chile, withdrew from July's world championship in Fukuoka, Japan with what she'd called "crippling anxiety and depression." "I've been in these positions before," Pickrem said Wednesday night at Santiago's Centre Acuatico. "I definitely had bad years and bad days and struggle with my mental health throughout the years.
I don't think this was necessarily the first time. Sometimes I almost forget, once I'm doing well, to still check in and take care of myself. "Someone asked me 'is that all behind you?' and I'm like depression and anxiety will never be behind me.
It's going to be something I always have for the rest of my life, but I embrace it and I want to tackle it and be the best me I can be." Pickrem is a dual Canadian-American citizen who was born in Florida and whose family is from Halifax.