Dale Thomas reveals anxiety battle stemming from an abusive dad, childhood
Former AFL star Dale Thomas has revealed more of his inner demons, revealing that he is battling anxiety after his daughter’s birth triggered childhood trauma caused by his abusive dad.
Confidential
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Dale Thomas has revealed he suffers from anxiety stemming from an abusive father during childhood.
The former AFL star says he faced his past demons when his daughter Tilly was born.
“Well a lot of it’s triggered by growing up. Like my old man was abusive, a lot of that s---, physical, alcoholic,’’ he says in a discussion with camp mates tonight on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!
“All because of the past, and because I never dealt with it, that was my way of dealing with it. I just sort of blocked it to a deep, dark place.
“And then having my daughter just for whatever reason, apparently it’s really, really common, when you have kids all the stuff from your childhood just comes back to the surface.
“I could be having lunch, and think about Tilly, and have this wild sense of ‘what’s going on?” — just paranoid and weird.”
Thomas has already opened up in the jungle about how he sought counselling at the height of his footy career to deal with “all this s--- I’d carried around for 30 years”.
“I started seeing a counsellor,” the former Collingwood and Carlton champion said. “Within about a month, I was able to go in go and express myself.
“It felt like the weight of the world was off my shoulders … all this s--- that I’d carried around for 30 years.
“Every time something got worse it just stacked on and stacked on. (But) all of a sudden, I was able to communicate it, and it didn’t feel like an embarrassment.”
Thomas also revealed there had been times he cried in his car before training as he battled mental health issues.
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A split from his partner meant he barely had the chance to see his daughter, Tilly.
“The lowest point was going through the split with the missus in pre-season, my daughter being sort of removed from my care,” he said.
“Having to deal with that, while trying to be a professional athlete, at that point I didn’t really care.”
Last week, Thomas broke down in tears before taking on a snake challenge.
His fearful sobbing came before he had to put his head into a box filled with snakes.
Genuinely petrified, Thomas broke down at the thought of facing his biggest fear.
“I always disliked snakes, and how they move, and everything about them,” Thomas said on the show.
“If you fear something, you steer away from it as far as possible. I’m proper petrified.”