SportsLit (Season 6, Episode 7) - Corey Hirsch (NHL goalie) - The Save of My Life: My Journey out of the Dark

Corey Hirsch played 14 seasons as a professional goalie, including 108 NHL games. He raised the Stanley Cup and came within a postage stamp goal of backstopping Canada to an Olympic Gold medal. But the save of his life never happened on the ice. It happened when he stopped short of driving off a cliff. The plan was to finally be rid of intrusive thoughts he couldn’t shut off. Now he has learned how to deal with them. Corey’s brain lies to him, it tells him things that aren’t true. It is called OCD and the form he has is probably not what you think it is. People such as Hirsch can drown in irrational thoughts about harming themselves or others, contracting deadly diseases and/or need constant self-assurance about their sexual orientation. Corey, like so many others that suffer from this mental illness was ready to end it all…but he didn’t, he got help and came forward. While so many out there suffer, often in silence, Hirsch uses his platform to make sure they aren’t alone. Five years after his important mental health revelation in The Players' Tribune, his new book with Sean Patrick Conboy goes deeper into that journey from despair to hope.