{"id":293853,"date":"2023-11-02T09:23:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T09:23:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=293853"},"modified":"2023-11-02T09:23:53","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T09:23:53","slug":"miedema-opens-up-on-suffering-panic-attacks-when-she-got-to-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/miedema-opens-up-on-suffering-panic-attacks-when-she-got-to-arsenal\/","title":{"rendered":"Miedema opens up on suffering &apos;panic attacks&apos; when she got to Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Vivianne Miedema opens up on suffering from &#8216;panic attacks&#8217; when she arrived at Arsenal in 2017 &#8211; but that struggle is motivating the Dutch star to help front a new player-led mental health movement<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mental health is increasingly becoming a more open conversation for players\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Vivianne Miedema is helping to front a new initiative called &#8216;Create the Space&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Follow Mail Sport&#8217;s new Arsenal WhatsApp channel for all the breaking news\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Vivianne Miedema has opened up on how she suffered from panic attacks earlier in her career, with the Arsenal forward at the forefront of a new player-led mental health movement in football.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutch international joined Arsenal in 2017 and said that was the first time she had felt comfortable seeking help for the difficulties she had experienced.<\/p>\n<p>Supported by Common Goal, Miedema is now one of several players behind the launch of Create the Space, a collective initiative to equip football at all levels with the knowledge, skills and resources to understand, prevent and deal with mental health issues.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Where I grew up in the north of Holland it just wasn&#8217;t OK to talk about mental health, it just wasn&#8217;t done,&#8217; Miedema said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Then when I moved to Germany when I said I wasn&#8217;t feeling so good and needed more time, I was told that I needed to train harder.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/02\/08\/77309195-0-image-m-2_1698913499582.jpg\" height=\"464\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Arsenal and Holland star\u00a0Vivianne Miedema has opened up on how she suffered from panic attacks earlier in her career &#8211; and why that is motivating her to held with a new initiative<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/02\/08\/77310041-12701321-image-a-22_1698915326997.jpg\" height=\"793\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Growing up in the Netherlands, it was not customary to be open about mental health problems<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;At Arsenal when I had the opportunity to see someone, I was suffering from panic attacks, but even then I still wasn&#8217;t sure if I should, as it had never been OK to address my mental health.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The proudest moment of my career so far was to take care of myself and look after my mental health, not just the physical. Everybody needs support.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Miedema&#8217;s partner and Arsenal team-mate Beth Mead is also backing the campaign, with the forward saying she was in a &#8216;dark place&#8217; after the passing of her mum earlier this year<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;In January I lost my Mum and because of the injury I couldn&#8217;t play football, which was always my escape, my happy place,&#8217; Mead said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Moments when people thought I was fine because of my outgoing personality, were very dark.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s been a tough process to understand. Team-mates, people at the club, family and friends that supported me were so important, without them I could have been in a far darker place.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I want to help create an environment in which it&#8217;s totally normal to address mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/02\/08\/77309247-0-image-a-3_1698913667213.jpg\" height=\"470\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Beth Mead (left), Miedema&#8217;s partner, is another high profile star backing the new campaign<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/02\/08\/77309319-0-image-a-6_1698913795793.jpg\" height=\"636\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Top players across the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s game are giving their backing to\u00a0Create the Space, a collective initiative to equip football at all levels with the knowledge, skills and resources to understand, prevent and deal with mental health issues<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There&#8217;s not a perfect way of dealing with it, but if you feel you&#8217;re not alone it helps so much. We need to normalise mental health and in doing so that would go a long way.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The campaign is also backed by Tottenham captain Molly Bartrip, who has previously spoken about her battle with anorexia and depression during her youth.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Some years ago I was in a position where I wanted to commit suicide,&#8217; Bartrip said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You feel like you&#8217;re a burden, but it&#8217;s the strongest thing to ask for help. Mental health shouldn&#8217;t be a forbidden subject, it should be as open as having an injury. I now consider my vulnerability as a strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;For the first time in 10 years I&#8217;m not seeing a counsellor at the moment. I want football to become a safe space and hope that from the top level down to grassroots that&#8217;s what we can achieve with Create the Space.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea and England left back Ben Chilwell, who is also part of the movement, is another high-profile player who has been open about experiencing mental health difficulties.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/02\/08\/77309309-0-image-a-4_1698913694416.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea full-back Ben Chilwell has been very open on his own mental health battle\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I have had my own mental health journey and I felt unsure about where to turn to for support.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s down to our generation to change this and ensure that throughout football, all the way from the elite level to young people in community organisations, we have each other&#8217;s backs and we&#8217;re equipped with the tools to help ourselves and those around us.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We need to move from talking about mental health to taking action, and Create the Space provides the platform for everyone wishing to take action to play a role in tackling mental health issues, whether they are playing in the Premier league, in the playground, or in the park.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Create the Space aims to be the starting point of equipping everyone at every level of football with the ability to understand and manage mental health.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12701321\/Vivianne-Miedema-opens-suffering-panic-attacks-arrived-Arsenal-2017-struggle-motivating-Dutch-star-help-new-player-led-mental-health-movement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Vivianne Miedema opens up on suffering from &#8216;panic attacks&#8217; when she arrived at Arsenal in 2017 &#8211; but that struggle is motivating the Dutch star <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/miedema-opens-up-on-suffering-panic-attacks-when-she-got-to-arsenal\/\" title=\"Miedema opens up on suffering &amp;apos;panic attacks&amp;apos; when she got to Arsenal\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Miedema opens up on suffering &amp;apos;panic attacks&amp;apos; when she got to Arsenal - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/soccer\/miedema-opens-up-on-suffering-panic-attacks-when-she-got-to-arsenal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miedema opens up on suffering &amp;apos;panic attacks&amp;apos; 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