Declaration: Mental health - Nicole Bolton | Grandstand

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It's been a tough 12 months for Australian all-rounder Nicole Bolton with such a busy schedule and a lot of personal change.

In this episode of Declaration - a video series produced by ABC Grandstand, Nicole talks about taking some time out of the Australian squad and seeking help.

Produced by ABC Grandstand.

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Transcript:

I think I was dealing with a lot of different elements and probably got to the point where some sort of intervention needed to happen and I'm glad it did to be honest.

When I chose to take a break it was a really hard decision for me to make.

I sort of got to the point where something needed to give and spending that time away I was really able to work on myself and get back to doing what I love which is playing cricket.

It's been a bit of a journey but I'm feeling a lot more like myself now and I feel like I'm a better person for it and hopefully it can show in my cricket as well. It was definitely some form of burnout. It was a really hard 12 months I guess. We had the Malaysia series and straight into the T20 World Cup, which is, you know, what you as a player really strive to win

and then to come back and have not too much time off between Big Bash. We all know how, you know, full on that can be.

And then obviously, the things for me personally changed as well. So I think I was dealing with a lot of different elements and probably got to the point where some sort of intervention needed to happen. And I'm glad it did to be honest.

I guess initially, it's a really hard conversation to have because you're not really sure what's going on. You know something doesn't quite feel right. It's really hard to talk about it if you're not really sure what it is. I think now I'm in a position where I'm coming out the other end now

that I can talk about my experiences and I can hopefully shed some light that, you know, the stigma around mental health is, it's a conversation that a lot of people are starting to have

and a lot of athletes particularly and I think everyone's got their own things going on in life.

One thing that I remember Motty saying to me, he just wanted me happy and healthy and I think if you're happy and healthy you're always going to be enjoying whatever you do. And for me, that's playing professional sport.