Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Landon Donovan’s Memoir Reveals a Career Lived With Depression

The memoir spotlights mental health struggles, family reconciliation, a quieter definition of success.

Overview

  • Donovan released "Landon: A Memoir," using the arc of his decorated U.S. soccer career to tell a personal story about mental health and meaning.
  • He says he has lived with low-level depression for most of his life and endured three major episodes marked by exhaustion, loss of appetite and a crushing sense of weight.
  • He describes relying on therapy, medication, meditation and support from his mother to manage symptoms and stay balanced.
  • The book revisits his five-month break in 2013, which he says cost him the LA Galaxy captaincy and a 2014 World Cup spot, and it alludes to a frightening hallucinatory episode without revealing details.
  • Coverage in the Los Angeles Times and Fox News underscores his reconciled bond with his late father and frames his candor as part of a broader shift that makes athlete mental health easier to discuss.