Everton’s England international midfielder Dele Alli confessed to spending six weeks in a rehabilitation clinic and revealed delicate childhood situations, colored by drug use at the age of eight, in a conversation with Gary Neville, on ‘The Overlap’ podcast.
“I don’t talk much about my childhood, but there were a few events that make you understand some things,” the England international explained to Gary Neville. “When I was six years old, I was abused by a friend of my mother’s who came to my house a lot. Because my mother was an alcoholic. It happened when I was six.”
And he continued to tell more about his difficult childhood. “I was sent to Africa to learn discipline, then they sent me back. When I was seven I started smoking and when I was eight I was selling drugs. An older person told me she [a polícia] They wouldn’t stop a kid on a bike, so I carried my ball and the drugs. When I was eleven I was hanged from a bridge by a man.”
At the age of 12, he was adopted by a family he said was “amazing”.
“I couldn’t ask better people to do what they did for me. If God created people, He created them. They were amazing, they helped me a lot. But it was hard for me to open up because I felt was easy for other people to get rid of me… I tried to be the best kid possible for them. I stayed from 12 until I started playing professionally at 16. It all started from there.”
But “it always came down to arguing” with himself [Dele Alli].
Alli also discovered his addiction to sleeping pills and alcohol, which came to light after his stint with Besiktas last season. On his return from Turkey, he found that he “needed surgery”, adding to his “weakened mental health at the time”, which only fueled the disaster. “That’s when I decided to go to a mental health rehab center. They treat addiction, mental health and trauma.”
“I felt like I was losing the battle [da saúde mental] and it was time to change that, because when I found out I needed surgery, I was in a spiral of negative thoughts, and I didn’t want that to happen again. So I went. I was there for six months and fortunately was very well accepted by Everton. I felt 100% supported and I will be grateful to them [Everton] forever”.
Mental health problems are not new and the 27-year-old midfielder now wants to “make other people realize that they are not alone and that seeking help does not make them weaker”.
Source: DN
