How Golfer Bubba Watson’s Faith Helps Him Overcome Anxiety
By Movieguide® Staff
Two-time Masters golf tournament winner Bubba Watson recently shared details of his struggle with severe anxiety throughout his professional career.
Despite his success on the green, Watson confessed that his achievements did not help with his panic attacks.
Even after winning at the highest level, Watson recalled a time where he thought he could die due to weight loss and other health struggles.
Watson said his appearance reminded him of his father, Gerry, who had fought in the Vietnam War.
“I just kept seeing my dad in the reflection,” Watson told the Independent. “I’m looking like my dad. Do I have something wrong with me? Do I have cancer? I fell to my knees. I thought, if I’m only going to be here for a few more minutes, I need to tell my wife how much I love her, the same with my kids. I didn’t see a way out.”
While the inner turmoil and mental battle was intense, Watson said that he kept it from the public eye.
“People kept telling me I looked good when I was losing weight,” he said. “You try and dance around it, to use golf as a coping mechanism, but eventually you reach a breaking point.”
Watson first experienced a panic attack in 2007; he said he confused it with a heart attack.
Watson would struggle with similar experiences for the next ten years, even pulling out a of tournament in 2011 after being rushed to the hospital. Then, Watson realized that the panic attacks were a mental battle.
“That wasn’t a medicine problem,” he said. “That was life. The bloodwork showed I was healthy but my mind was playing tricks on me.”
But the pressure to win eased slightly after he and his wife, Angie, adopted their first child, Caleb.
However, Watson said that the pressure to win eventually changed to a hunger for validation.
“It keeps building right, it’s gradual. And social media starts picking up and I see that people dislike me, I read the comments and take the negative but not the positive. It all starts to add up,” the star said. “When I was in that dark hole, I didn’t see myself as a two-time Masters champion. You only see the negative. You lose perspective.”
However, as Watson grew older, his family and his faith helped change his perspective on golf and his career.
“It’s perspective on life, sport,” he explained. “You see how much people care. It’s about taking a snapshot of those moments when the kids giggle or my wife makes us all dinner, having those moments together. I’m getting older.”
Movieguide® previously reported:
While Watson admitted that he is “not completely free of anxiety,” he said that he found healing in surrendering his anxiety to God.
“I surrendered to the fact that I had a problem, an anxiety disorder, and took my first crucial step toward finding help and getting better,” Watson wrote, adding that he fishes to de-stress.
“It’s an escape from the tour and the things that can trigger anxiety,” Watson shared. “I recharge my batteries, as they say, especially my spiritual batteries. I relax. And I thank the Lord for the blessings I’m learning to embrace.”
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