It can happen to anyone. And celebrities are not exempt. For the documentary “mental Health, breaking the taboo”, several personalities have agreed to engage: the sportsman and singer Yannick Noah on his depression after her victory at Roland Garros, the singer Apple over her anxiety, the magician Eric Antoine on her post-traumatic stress and her disabilities of eating behavior, the humorist Constance on his burn-out, among others. Camille Lacourt agreed to discuss her two depressions.
The first took place after the 2012 Olympic Games. While Camille Lacourt was a favorite for the 100 meter back, he finished fourth. A failure that plunged him into a deep disarray. A depression which, for him, was then only a “difficult moment” that he overcome, in secret. Then, in 2017, when he retired sporting, he dressed in depression and alcoholism. Today, he is “very good”. And he wants to help others by speaking, showing that mental health problems are neither a taboo nor a weakness. He answered our questions before the preview of the documentary at the Ministry of Labor, Health, Solidarity and Families – in the presence of Minister Catherine Vautrin.
Paris Match. Why did you agree to participate in this documentary and talk about your mental health?
Camille Lacourt. Because this is something that I went through personally, and I am not the only one. More than one in four people will live a depressive episode in their life, and the weight of guilt is useless. If you can’t talk about it because you feel guilty, it’s impossible to get out of it. Haggling the fact that it could happen is a role that was close to my heart. I thought a lot about the subject: why it happened to me, how it happened to me, how I got out. And I don’t want to make the parallel between these moments of depression and a certain weakness.
You are not the only sportsman to testify: Yannick Noah and Florent Manaudou also evoke their depression.
Maybe we talk more about it in the world of sport because the emotions are larger, everything goes faster, further. Because it splashes even stronger. But I don’t think it’s more common than elsewhere. All the people who have experienced complicated moments that I meet are people who do extraordinary things. And it may also be that: when you have goals that are as high as high-level athletes, we arrive at consequences that are too. Maybe just life courses that can be different. But it can happen to anyone. If you are not in line with yourself, it doesn’t matter whether you are on TV, whether you are in a pool or you are a cashier. And there is no shame to experience this.
“Breaking the taboo” is the documentary subtitle. Have you experienced your depression as a taboo?
When I lived it, we did not use the word burn-out. In high -level sport, it was impossible to have a depression: we are warriors who must be the best in the world, it is not compatible with depression. I had called it a “difficult moment”. And it is after my career, when I spoke publicly, that an association called me by saying: “Do you want to come and talk with us about your depression?” “I replied,” I never had that, in fact. They sent me an email with all the symptoms of a depression, I cohated them all. I said to myself: “Ah shit, in fact, that’s what I experienced. Later, I made the decision to talk about it. It had a lot of consequences behind because it is something that you can’t just swing and leave. But I think it’s important to say it because there are too many of us living it.
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I tell myself that it is stupid because if it had been less secret, it would certainly have been treated faster
-Camille Lacourt
When did you talk about it to your loved ones?
I couldn’t tell them about it at first because I hadn’t put words on what it was. It is complicated to express something that we are not aware of. And when my daughter’s mother [Valérie Bègue, avec qui il a eu Jazz, en 2012, ndlr] saw that I was talking about these depressive episodes, she said to me: ‘You lived this?’ I hid him. She knew it was going less well, but not at this point. I had a mental trainer and other people on the professional side with whom I could work, without necessarily showing all this weakness. This is something that I didn’t want to show my opponents either, or even my training colleagues. So it remained very secret. With hindsight, I tell myself that it is stupid because if it had been less secret, it would certainly have been treated faster.
How did you overcome your depression?
I never used a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Because since my 17 years, I have been followed by a sport of sport, then by different mental preparers, so I think, that inconsolate, I had a lot of tools to get out of this phase. But the message I want to get across is that you have to go see a professional, someone external. It is important to talk about it with the people you love but it is not necessarily easy. With someone external, there is no judgment.
Running has also been a way to overcome your depression.
For me, running was therapy. It was a time when I found myself alone with myself, when I really managed to focus on what I wanted to be, what I wanted to become, how I had to put it in place. These are moments when I did not have external interactions, when I could really concentrate. For me, it’s really part of my therapy.
Your depressions have coincided with highlights of your sports career – your failure at the 2012 Olympic Games, your retirement. Do you continue to swim?
I did not associate swimming with my depressive episodes, it has nothing to do. I don’t swim at all, but not for these reasons. In fact, at the time when I was swimming I was a rocket, with a body that was specially created and worked for that, today this is no longer the case. I have a pain in the shoulder after ten minutes, I have a pain in the arms and legs and clearly it goes so much slower than at the time when I was swimming that there was no more pleasure in a swimming pool. On the other hand, I continue physical activity because I know that it is part of my mental balance.
You have moved to the south of France. Is it easier to take care of yourself and your mental health in Marseille than in Paris?
Oui. [Rires] I believe that the connection with nature is much more obvious. Especially in the way we [lui et sa compagne Alice Detollenaere, ndlr]we understand our life. That is to say that, if we have a little time at the end of the school, we go on the beach, we make sand castles or we play with the dog. These are moments of an extraordinary disconnection. This connection to nature is really important.
What advice would you give to someone who crosses depression?
Already, I would say “good luck”. I would tell him not to hesitate to see a professional, and the last little advice is to try to reconnect in the present. When you are not well, you are either in the past remembering something that has shit, or in the future, you say to yourself “soon it will be better”. The key may be to find very small short-term goals to be able to get up.
