Two Grey Cup rings. League all-star. A loving wife. Fabulous son. A second child – a girl – due in a couple of months.
Shea Emry has a lot going for him.
On good days.
On bad days, Emry, a Canadian Football League linebacker with the Saskatachewan Roughriders battles issues like most Canadians.
“I continually have to deal with my demons,” said Emry, 29, a Richmond native who lives in Vancouver during the CFL off-season. “Life is a balancing act for anyone who has lived it.”
Emry will be sharing his story of success and battling those demons at a lecture Thursday, Jan. 28, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Vernon Atrium Hotel and Conference Centre (formerly the Vernon Lodge).
“I’m bringing my TEDx (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk to Vernon. It’s advocacy for men’s health being done through the lens of my own Wellmen Project which tries to provide opportunities for men to get outside and reconnect with themselves through excursions in nature.”
Emry won both his Grey Cup rings as a member of the Montreal Alouettes. He was the 2012 defensive player of the year runner-up and Canadian player of the year runner-up.
But it was in 2011, when he suffered a season-ending concussion, that Emry found himself battling trials of the past; trials that included negative self-talk, isolation, and an intensifying self-consciousness that drew him back into a depressive state he’d known since adolescence, the victim of extreme childhood bullying.
The lifetime of negative self-image from the traumatic childhood experiences led to the torment of upholding a macho standard of masculinity in professional sport.
Immersed in a culture where men are expected to mask their feelings, Emry realized the “toxic silence of manliness” was affecting more than just him.
“My good days and bad days fluctuate,” said Emry. “The big reason I founded Wellmen was so I could find a purpose off the football field and ignite desire for other men to find purpose in their lives through these adventures.
“It’s still a daily battle for me. My moods fluctuate from being super stoked and ready to rock to I don’t have any self-worth. It’s a difficult time to find positivity and motivation.”
The concussion helped Emry find a passion for something that will be his life’s work when his football career ends.
“It enabled me to find perspective and clarity around why I was thinking the way I was thinking,” said Emry. “It launched me on a journey to find out who I was off the field. Football had been taken away from me at the time, and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to go back on the field.”
Emry’s talk, which is free of charge and open to the public, is being presented by the Canadian Mental Health Association, Vernon and District branch.
