Former Utah State football head coach Brent Guy is opening up about his bipolar disorder.
Guy, who was the head coach at Utah State from 2005-08, talked to ESPN about living with bipolar disorder, saying that he has lived with it for 30 years.
The article recounts Guy’s experiences in life with bipolar disorder through his life and his 11 coaching jobs. Guy tells the whole story — from his diagnosis, to living with bipolar disorder, to his medication and now to his new chapter in life.
Now retired from coaching, Guy is helping to remove the stigma around bipolar disorder.
Guy, volunteering through the Tulsa office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has given some two dozen talks to first responders and detention officers, telling his story so that they will more quickly recognize the symptoms of mental illness.
He hopes to find a role as a mental health advocate in intercollegiate athletics. He wants to remove the stigma from bipolar disorder. He wants to help. He wants to stop living his life while, as he put it, “hiding in the tall grass.”
He surrendered his coaching career to do it. “I think,” he said, “that when you stepped over the line for sanity, and you’ve come back, you understand it better.”
Brent Guy always will have this disorder. Now it’s a little less lonely.
Guy even set up an email address, ilivebp2@yahoo.com, which appears at the end of the article, in order for people with questions about bipolar disorder to contact him.