Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Opens Up About Depression Battle
Who says grown men don't cry? Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson certainly doesn't. The former WWE Champ and actor in the "Fast and Furious" franchise recently revealed that he had struggled with depression and despair when he was younger and now wants to help others.
"I didn't want to do a thing," Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter. "I didn't want to go anywhere; I was crying constantly. Eventually you reach a point where you are all cried out."
This was when he was just a young man struggling to make it – he had frequent run-ins with the law and was kicked out of his family's home at just 14. To make matters worse, the professional football team he was a part of let him go, which was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was too much for Johnson to handle.
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"We were living in an efficiency that cost $120 a week," he said of life with his mother, Ata. His dad, Rocky, was a professional wrestler trying to support the family. "We come home, and there's a padlock on the door and an eviction notice. My mom starts bawling. She just started crying and breaking down. 'Where are we going to live? What are we going to do?'"
Johnson was deeply affected by seeing his mother break down, and he became determined that his family would never go through that again.
"That was the tipping point," he said. "It was about, 'What can I control with these two hands?' The only thing I could do was train and build my body. The successful men I knew were men who built their bodies."
That's what he set out to do, but little did he know of the fame that it would bring him. Nothing came easy, though, and he suffered through several bouts of depression while in college and afterwards. Finally, he was signed to the WWE, which led to movie deals and now the rest is history. He'll be featured in the upcoming "Fast and the Furious" and next year's "Hercules."
