AJ Lee says she has mental health protection in her WWE contract

I looked like I had everything in the world. I’m champion and all this stuff, but I was so deeply depressed.

Part of my journey afterward was finding the right treatment for me and becoming a mental health advocate, becoming a keynote speaker, and really trying to send this message not just to people in sports, but also to communities of color.

As a Latina, we don’t talk about our mental health. It’s not a thing that’s accepted in our culture, and there are so many barriers to treatment.

So that’s been a huge part of the journey — opening people’s eyes to the fact that when you come from a certain socioeconomic background or cultural background, or there are language barriers, or you’re in a healthcare desert, there are all these different barriers just to get in the door.

And then to not even be represented in clinical trials and research. It’s been this 10-year journey of trying to make people aware of how important that is on so many different levels.

Then to come back into wrestling and see that they have also opened up their minds. The first thing I wanted to make sure was going to work was, ‘Is my mental health protected? Do I feel safe here? Are you guys aware of what it means to need mental health time off? Is that something that’s a priority for this to be a priority?’

Part of the conversation was really cool in a way that I couldn’t even reveal my diagnosis 10 years ago, but now it was a part of my contract.

So that is a really cool, beautiful thing.

I hope all sports can incorporate that because it is such a different thing. Like you were saying, you do need exceptional internal health and mental health just to perform safely.

So I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised to see that shift.”