Former Essendon star Jobe Watson reveals how he regained purpose during drug ban
Former Bomber star Jobe Watson has recalled how he felt during that dark time. He also revealed the strategy that got him through that can help those stuck in coronavirus isolation.
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Former Essendon star Jobe Watson says the current coronavirus crisis reminds him of the “sick” feeling he experienced during his 12 month drug ban.
Watson was the most high profile Bomber to miss the 2016 season, with the club captain also stripped of his Brownlow Medal.
The isolation measures combatting the spread of coronavirus along with the brutal job losses experienced by people across the country have forced the three-time best-and-fairest winner to relive one of the darkest times of his life.
Four years ago Watson’s work “evaporated” overnight, with the 35-year-old revealing on the “Working Through It” podcast that it left him in a state of unknown.
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“I remember feeling sick and not wanting to leave the house and having no idea what I was going to do… and feeling that I would never come through it and that it would never end,” Watson said.
“That’s a really normal experience for people to be going through (right now)… that fear and that uncertainty can be really crippling.
“You’re used to a routine, you’re used to what your identity is. It makes a huge difference to your life and self-worth and how you’re thinking about yourself.
“And for that to evaporate overnight, which was the case for us as well… I remember feeling incredibly anxious about it and just that feeling of unknown, and scared about what was going to be there and how I was going to deal with it.”
Watson also offered advice for people struggling in isolation, recounting a useful strategy he used during his drug ban that helped ‘changed the direction’ of his life.
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“After about a week I sat down one night down at the farm and I wrote down a list of the things I wanted to do and the person I wanted to become out of this.
“It was really like my template for the year and the decisions that I made for the year were based off that.
“Being able to tick those things off on the list, when I looked back at the 12 months afterwards … all the things I wanted or the person I wanted to become, I’d been able to achieve it.
“I know it is really difficult when the whole world is in the same situation but I think back on that time and think, ‘what can I achieve, how can I be different, how can I be better, how can I innovate myself, how can I come out of this as a better person?’
“It was the map for me in being able to change the direction of my life.”
Originally published as Former Essendon star Jobe Watson reveals how he regained purpose during drug ban