Different Fragments of Myself

Hershcel Walker is widely considered the best college football player of all time, and is a member of the NFL hall of fame. Football was his everything – the constant, rigid schedule, however, masked his own struggles from his teammates and coaches and even from himself

Herschel Walker

Politician, Retired Football Player & Athlete

From Herschel

I think I’ve suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) for a long time. I believe it goes back to my childhood- I was overweight, I was bullied and picked on, I had a stuttering problem. I didn’t love myself, who I was, and what I did. I wanted to be better.

I got diagnosed in 2001, I really had no idea what was going on. If my life had stayed in football, if I had kept going, I probably would have never noticed it. When my life slowed down, I noticed things were different, something was wrong.

There are so many stereotypes involving DID. I wrote my book because I want to destigmatize it. I’ve always been Herschel-- I just have different fragments of myself. I don’t think most people recognize it in themselves, but I think many people suffer from it. I was always shy and quiet and afraid of crowds, I felt a lot of loneliness, and started having memory lapses. My ex-wife said that there were things that I did and I would have no memory of doing it. Because of this, I knew I had a problem. I knew I needed to get help. My support system really saved my life.

From

WNYC