Mauro Ranallo is no stranger to mental health issues. Ranallo has faced considerable problems throughout his life due to the issues, and the reluctance of the world to recognize them as a problem. During an episode of MMA Hour on MMA Fighting, Ranallo talked about the stigma surrounding mental health and the alarming condition of combat sports with regards to the mental wellbeing of the athletes.
Ranallo was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder at the early age of 19 and has lived with the disease since then. He has made it a part and parcel of his life to use his fame to spread knowledge about mental illness and the need for better mental healthcare throughout the world.
During the interview, he talked about how combat sports athletes are sometimes told to ‘suck it up’ and focused on the ‘alpha male syndrome’ as well as ‘toxic masculinity’ which has become a huge part of combat sports.
Longtime mental health advocate @mauroranallo opens up on the reluctance of fighters to discuss mental health issues: "We're told to suck it up or get back in there. That's killing too many people."
Watch full episode of #TheMMAHour: https://t.co/0m4yzUNa9f pic.twitter.com/8tr1Ns1Qcg
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) November 13, 2018
He accused mental health of killing too many people and said the resources that were lacking for mental health care was a big factor in this. He talked about cancer and HIV and AIDS, saying how people had progressed enough to research for cures for those diseases and show the survivors empathy. He pointed out this attitude was sorely lacking in the world of MMA and Combat Sports when it comes to mental illness.
He ended on a note of warning saying mental health issues were ‘crippling’ a large part of the population and had to be dealt with immediately.