While Sean Strickland has emerged as a success story in the Ultimate Fighting Championship , he is still haunted by his personal demons.
The former UFC middleweight champion shared his struggles with mental health in a video on his Instagram account Monday night. According to Strickland, he has “everything I could ever want,” but that still isn’t a cure for what ails him.
Strickland’s full video statement is as follows:
“Man, all week I’ve been f—-d up, dude. I’ve been on the Twitter saying crazy s—t, just just f—-ing spiraling. I woke up and I told my girl, I was like, ‘Babe, I feel like a danger to people. I don’t feel like I should be out in the world.’ And I think that, you know, I have everything: I’m rich, I’m famous. Like, I have everything I’ve ever f—-ing wanted, and I still am mentally unwell. And I get in these like, mindsets, to where like, I want to burn everything down in the world. Like, I want to have nothing so I could just f—ing lose it and just take out everything on people. And I think that, like, you guys in a weird way are like my family.
“I’ve shared some s—t with you guys and you guys have shared some s—t with me that like, I feel more connected with my fans than I think most people feel, just because we’ve gone through a lot together. And man, you know I have everything I want, dude, and I still struggle with mental health. And my memory is so short that like, when I’ve gone through this week, like once I get past it, I think to myself, ‘Oh man, that was a really rough time in my life.’ But then when I really think about it, this happens multiple times a month, every month.
“And again, I don’t even know why I’m telling you guys this. I’ve just been kind of going through some s—t. I’m fine, I’ll be fine. I’m going to go train right now and try to hurt all my friends and all the demons will go away. I just want you guys know that I have everything I could ever want in the world and I still struggle, so whatever you guys are going through, man, I hope you all feel better. Go to the gym, train. F—-ing wish you all the best.”
Strickland is well known for his controversial takes on a variety of topics, and his recent success — most notably an upset of Israel Adesanya to claim middleweight gold at UFC 293 — has given him a larger platform to voice his opinions. In this instance, Strickland opened up to his fans and followers.
“I'm always fighting the demons, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose,” Strickland wrote in the caption to his video. “I lost last week. Anyways I understand a lot of my fans are very similar to me.. Just wanted to share this and remind you you're not alone.”
Strickland last appeared at UFC 297, where he relinquished the 185-pound belt in a split-decision loss to Dricus Du Plessis on Jan. 20.
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