{"id":297830,"date":"2023-05-17T23:48:29","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T23:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=297830"},"modified":"2023-05-18T00:59:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T00:59:41","slug":"afl-great-reveals-sad-diagnosis-after-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=297830","title":{"rendered":"AFL great reveals 'sad' diagnosis after addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former VFL<\/a> player and AFL broadcaster Rex Hunt has revealed an addiction to opioids led to a mental health decline which resulted in a diagnosis for "bipolar depression".<\/p>\n

The VFL premiership winner broke his silence following a stay in a mental health facility after a late-night health scare earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Hunt, 74, told Sam Newman's You Cannot Be Serious<\/em> podcast he was driving along the Princes Highway to Geelong around 2am in January, when he pulled to the side of the road and called police for assistance. <\/p>\n

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Hunt told officers he had been attacked by thugs and threatened with a knife and a gun.<\/p>\n

"The police came down and they made a recommendation that I be actually locked up because it was a figment of my imagination," said Hunt, who maintains he did not make anything up.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I was taken to Geelong psychiatric hospital.<\/p>\n

"I may not ever get over my mental illness, but the thing about it is I am trying to control it.<\/p>\n

"I spent the next seven weeks in the Victoria Clinic in Prahran in my own room on some special medication and then I was discharged a few weeks ago."<\/p>\n

Hunt said his mental health decline started seven years ago after he became hooked on pain killing opioids after neck surgery.<\/p>\n

"I overdosed on opioids and went downhill very, very quickly," he said.<\/p>\n

"I am completely off opioids (now). I am certainly on a couple of medications from my psychiatrist to try and level out my brain, but it is a big thing. It is a big thing in your life and it is a big thing to talk about.<\/p>\n

"If I can help somebody to understand that you can be what is normal, or quite normal in your particular mind, and the next moment you are in a straight jacket down in a facility.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"It is a chemical imbalance in the brain and I have been diagnosed with bipolar depression, high highs and low lows."<\/p>\n

Hunt said his family had grown apart in recent times and he wasn't close to his adult children at the moment.<\/p>\n

"I hold myself totally responsible for what has happened, but it is a very private thing between (my wife) Lynne and I, but we are working on it," he told the podcast.<\/p>\n

"My children certainly aren't (close). The whole family has busted up, simple as that, it is very, very sad, but things happen.<\/p>\n

"I am in a very difficult place at the moment because it is difficult to try and get everyone together when you are trying to get yourself together."<\/p>\n

Hunt won two VFL premierships as a player for Richmond before becoming part of the furniture of the AFL as a commentator. He also hosted his own fishing show.<\/p>\n

However, Hunt continued to make headlines recently despite his retirement.<\/p>\n

He went on a Facebook rant calling for Wayne Carey to replace AFLW champion Daisy Pearce broadcasting live football coverage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hunt was also caught on camera appearing to wield a garden fork in a road rage incident in Victoria last July.<\/p>\n

He said he has the support of his friends and is taking things slow with his mental health.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"For this to be, is up to me," he told the podcast.<\/p>\n

"I just have to work it through and take every day as it comes.<\/p>\n

"My mind is OK, I am thinking pretty good, I am looking forward to going fishing if I can get my shoulder fixed."\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong> clicking here<\/strong><\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former VFL player and AFL broadcaster Rex Hunt has revealed an addiction to opioids led to a mental health decline which resulted in a diagnosis […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":297832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297836,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297830\/revisions\/297836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/297832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}