FORT WORTH, Texas -- TCU standout guard Hailey Van Lith said she was glad to have shared publicly about mental health experiences she dealt with early in her basketball career, even though it has been difficult.
"It's been very positive," Van Lith said Wednesday. "I've received a lot of encouragement and also a lot of people, you know, sharing that they can relate or that I helped them feel understood. That's the whole point."
Van Lith, the Big 12 Player of the Year, is preparing to play in the Sweet 16 of the women's NCAA tournament for the fifth season in a row. She has helped lead the Horned Frogs reach this point for the first time, after going to a Final Four and two Elite Eights with Louisville before making another Elite Eight with LSU last season.
Van Lith, also a prominent figure on social media in the era of name, image and likeness, broke down in tears after TCU's second-round win Sunday over Louisville when asked about girls and boys of all ages wearing her No. 10 jersey and her being one of the faces for women's college basketball.
"I mean, it's a blessing," she said then through tears. "But I really -- I'm really standing on God's shoulders right now. ... He's delivered me from so much, man, and so much pain and suffering and confusion."
It wasn't until afterward in the locker room that Van Lith spoke about her mental health after being exposed to news media and social media at such a young age, but making it clear that she is loving life now.
"When I was younger in college, I was suicidal, I was heavily medicated and felt trapped. And you would never know it because I was having a ton of success on the court," she said. "But internally, and in life in general, I was ready to be done. That's what I mean when I speak on suffering and pain. I didn't even want to live."
Speaking on the Fort Worth campus Wednesday, Van Lith said she first decided she needed to seek help and get serious about her well-being after seeing the story about Katie Meyer, the Stanford goalie who died by suicide at her campus residence in March 2022.
Van Lith said she personally invested in a sports psychologist "who kind of doubles as like a normal therapist at the same time. And also, I think I've matured a lot. I'm older than I was. When I was going through a lot of my issues, I was like 19. So I was really young and I didn't know how to handle a lot of things."
She said she had been praying for some time about when to share her story and feels blessed to have the platform.
"I've known ever since it started that ... I'm going through such a unique journey that it has to be for a reason bigger than myself," Van Lith said. "And so I've known that I had to share it at some point.
"It's a little bit intimidating for me because it's totally outside my comfort zone. Only the people that are closest to me, like my parents and maybe, you know, my brother and my best friend kind of know the extent to what my life has been like. All those people knowing that about me has been a little bit scary for me. But, you know, I accepted God's challenge of sharing it. And so now I need to walk in it."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.