Alester Black on NXT Title Win & Overcoming Mental Health Issues

Recent post by Alester Black on his official Instagram page involved Black discussing his thoughts on winning the NXT Championship and overcoming mental health issues in his life.

Black stated it took him a few days to process the new big changes in his life following his NXT Championship victory over Andrade “Cien” Almas at last Saturday’s NXT TakeOver: New Orleans event.

Black revealed he currently suffers from anxiety and depression issues with some days feeling doubtful about his life and other days feeling motivated to overcome his issues. He stated winning the NXT Championship has meant a lot to him personally and the hard work done over the past 16 years of his wrestling career.

Later in the posting, Black dedicated his championship victory both to those who have supported him during his career and to those who are currently fighting their own battles with mental illnesses.

Now that I have had time to process the last couple of days and specifically Takeover New Orleans I wanted to sit down, literally, and type a few words. I have no idea where I will go with this, but I felt the need to do so. Also, instagram will undoubtedly annihilate the read ability and sentence build of this so bear with me, or not.

Whether you think I deserve what I won or not, I know I did. I am not going to try and win anyone over by asking for your sympathy. I am simply telling you who I am. I am someone who suffers from anxiety and depression. You know when you wake up and you can feel inside yourself that you are not having a good day already? Well I wake up too sometimes like that, only I wake up wondering why I even still wake up. I am someone who at most times feels a great disconnect with the entire universe and the people around me. I carry a flag inside my heart that is made up of music, equality, heartache and perseverance. This title means more to me than so many of you will ever understand. This business means so much more than most people understand. It isn’t something that I wanted to do as a hobby; I wanted this like nothing else in my life, nothing mattered but this, accomplishing this. And each and every year I told myself, it isn’t going to get any better than this and then each year for nearly 16 years long it did. And here we are. Despite the long road, despite the anxiety, which can be crippling at times, despite the not always fun states of minds that I have, I am here. And the good thing is.. I feel I am far from done. This one wasn’t just for myself, as cliche as that might sound. This one was truly for each and every person who thinks their situation or mental health is too severe to ever accomplish anything. I ask you please to proof the world, but mainly yourself, wrong and do what you wanna do. I still remember hanging around the small venue’s watching my friends play in their bands and we would coherently ‘trash the place’ thinking, man I hope I never lose this, I hope I never lose myself completely. Only to have found myself a lot more whole today. Thank you all for staying, even if only for a while; thank you.

Now that I have had time to process the last couple of days and specifically Takeover New Orleans I wanted to sit down, literally, and type a few words. I have no idea where I will go with this, but I felt the need to do so. Also, instagram will undoubtedly annihilate the read ability and sentence build of this so bear with me, or not. Whether you think I deserve what I won or not, I know I did. I am not going to try and win anyone over by asking for your sympathy. I am simply telling you who I am. I am someone who suffers from anxiety and depression. You know when you wake up and you can feel inside yourself that you are not having a good day already? Well I wake up too sometimes like that, only I wake up wondering why I even still wake up. I am someone who at most times feels a great disconnect with the entire universe and the people around me. I carry a flag inside my heart that is made up of music, equality, heartache and perseverance. This title means more to me than so many of you will ever understand. This business means so much more than most people understand. It isn’t something that I wanted to do as a hobby; I wanted this like nothing else in my life, nothing mattered but this, accomplishing this. And each and every year I told myself, it isn’t going to get any better than this and then each year for nearly 16 years long it did. And here we are. Despite the long road, despite the anxiety, which can be crippling at times, despite the not always fun states of minds that I have, I am here. And the good thing is.. I feel I am far from done. This one wasn’t just for myself, as cliche as that might sound. This one was truly for each and every person who thinks their situation or mental health is too severe to ever accomplish anything. I ask you please to proof the world, but mainly yourself, wrong and do what you wanna do. I still remember hanging around the small venue’s watching my friends play in their bands and we would coherently ‘trash the place’ thinking, man I hope I never lose this, I hope I never lose myself completely. Only to have found myself a lot more whole today. Thank you all for staying, even if only for a while; thank you.

A post shared by Aleister Black (@aleister_black) on Apr 9, 2018 at 2:22pm PDT