After figure skater Ashley Wagner finished fourth at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships and was left off the 2018 Winter Olympics team, she said she fell “into a very severe depression.”

Wagner — who was then “furious” and criticized the judges at nationals — opened up about her depression on her Instagram story Wednesday, which was World Mental Health Day. She is the latest athlete to share her struggle with mental health issues, joining others like fellow Olympian Michael Phelps and Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kevin Love.

In a series of Instagram videos, Wagner explained how her self-esteem and self-worth was linked to her success as an athlete, so when she failed to make the 2018 Olympic team after winning a team bronze medal in Sochi four years ago, she began questioning everything.

Wagner said:

“So I’m seeing on Instagram that it is World Mental Health Day, and I wanted to take a second and talk to you guys about mental health and what it means to me. After nationals and the way that everything went down, I went into a very severe depression. I could barely get out of bed. I could barely function and just the day-to-day was such a struggle for (me).

“At first, I was just really disappointed in myself for letting one event in my life derail everything that I thought I knew was true about myself and how I saw my place in the world and how I felt about my own sense of worth and value.

“I think, as an athlete, it’s really easy to tie in your sense of self-worth with how successful you are in competition. And I opened up to friends and family about that and about how I was feeling and how low I was.

“Anyway, because I was so open with people about how I was feeling, they were able to kind of push me in a direction where I felt comfortable seeking out professional help to help me figure out how to deal with these emotions.

“So, long story short, never discredit how you’re feeling and the fact that something can be done about that and steps need to be taken for you to get better. And I am in a completely different place now than I was then because I had a professional help me.

“I’m definitely not 100 percent better, but it’s one of those things where it’s a work in progress, and it’s day by day. And because I was able to eventually get myself to a point where I sought out help, I’m finally gaining tools to help myself get better.”

Thanks to NBC Sports for sharing.

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