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His Career

Michael Phelps was a United States Olympic Swimmer. He started his Olympic journey at age 15 in the 2000 Summer Olympics and placed fifth in the butterfly event. He would continue on to win a totally of 22 medals, 18 of them being gold medals throughout his career. Unfortunately, he did have a hardship to work through during his time as an Olympic Athlete.

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Early Exposer and Later Problems

At the age of 19, Michael attended a party with college students. At this party, just as you could infer, he drank a little. As he drove home, a police officer pulled him over and he was caught. He was open about the incident and called it "an isolated incident," Then, in 2009, a photo of Michael surfaced showing him smoking marijuana. He also came forward about the validity of the photo. This lost him time as a swimmer for the U.S team and a sponsorship deal with Kellogg. This stigma remained with Michael for a while and another incident came up in 2014 where was again found intoxicated while driving.

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Recognition and Rehabilitation

After the issues that occurred in 2014, Michael fully admitted he had an issue. Given this, he spent a 45-day stay at an Arizona rehab facility to help him overcome his troubles. As of the rest of his career, though difficult to fully recover from such an issue, he has improved and worked to better himself.

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Further Honesty

Given that Michael is retired and past his years competing in the pool, he has opened up more about the struggles he had with his past. Much of the trouble relates to the issue he had with his mental health. This dragged him down to a fairly low point. “I just self-medicated because I was just running from whatever I didn’t want to face,” He explained as he talked to Mic.

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An Advocate

As mentioned, the struggles Michael had came from the trouble he had with his mental health. Now, he doesn't want others to face the same issues he faced, and is an advocate for mental health. When asked about who he's like to see the scene of swimming change related to mental health, he said, “I’d like to see them actually care about it.” Though he takes pride in the trials that he had faced and overcome, he wants others to be safe from the issues that he faced in his young career.

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Sources

https://www.amethystrecovery.org/michael-phelps-on-addiction-and-recovery/

https://www.mic.com/articles/192296/michael-phelps-speaks-out-about-substance-use-mental-health-and-getting-help

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Amethyst Recovery Center Best Florida Drug & Alcohol Rehab Facility

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Michael Phelps on Addiction and Recovery - Amethyst Recovery Center

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A little while back, we wrote an article on famous people in recovery in which we mentioned a number of athletes. One of the most prominent names on this list was Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. Many knew that he had smoked marijuana and that he had experienced a couple of run-ins with the law while drinking behind the wheel, but these situations are not exclusive to those with addiction. On the surface, he appeared to be a man who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But a man’s public appearance can often be steeped in murky waters.