AJ Mendez has a very direct way of dealing with the darker parts of her mental health, and she even gave them a name.
During her appearance on State Of Mind with Maurice Benard, AJ talked about managing bipolar disorder and said she has learned how to recognize when her symptoms are starting to show up. She said she has made peace with parts of her condition, but the darker side has its own identity.
“I’ve been good at managing it. Like, I’ve made friends with my bipolar disorder. And like the darker stuff, I’ve named it. I call her Jean.”
AJ said calling that side “Jean” helps her separate those thoughts from who she really is. Later in the interview, AJ explained why naming those thoughts has helped her. She said it reminds her that the negative voice is not actually her.
“When she’s acting up, I’m like, ‘Jean, you’re not being cool.’ But most of the symptoms, I can feel them coming now because I’m so in tune with it. I’ve had so much therapy and really done everything under the sun. So I kind of know it, and I know how to adapt.”
“That’s why I love to name it, and I always try to tell people if you name it, it’s not you. It’s some other entity and you realize that that person’s a liar.”
AJ then got even more blunt about how she views that darker side. Mendez admitted that it is not always easy to separate herself from those thoughts when she is in the middle of it.
“Jean is mine and she’s a real bitch, and she’s a liar. She wants me to have a bad day, and I have to be like, no, that is not me. I don’t believe these terrible things I’m hearing in my head. There’s something else, and they will go away.”
“It’s hard to have that distance because when you’re in it, you are in it, and it feels all-encompassing and it feels like the truth.”
AJ credited therapy with helping her recognize those symptoms and separate herself from them.
“That’s the part that therapy has really helped me with, or just being very cognizant of my symptoms so I can notice when they’re happening. Separate myself from them.”
AJ Mendez has built a career on being brutally honest, and this was another example of her using that honesty to talk about something much bigger than wrestling. Naming her darker thoughts “Jean” may sound simple, but for AJ, it is clearly one of the tools that helps her fight back.
What do you think about AJ Mendez naming her darker thoughts as a way to separate them from herself? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below.
