Running Between The Lines

Former Montreal Alouette Etienne Boulay Talks Overcoming Depression

SportsVince Morello — Published May 6, 2015

“Concussions can have a lot of effects” said Dr. Rajeet Singh Saluja, a neurologist at the Montreal Neurological Institute. “They can cause headaches, nausea, vomiting, there’s also a lot more of the stuff people don’t really think about in terms of problems with attention.

“Problems with concentration as well of some kind of emotional issues too. Some [people] end up being a little more depressed.”

Former Canadian Football League safety and Grey Cup champion, Etienne Boulay, dealt with these issues during and after his career.

Suffering a major concussion in 2011, the defensive back attempted a comeback in 2012, winning the Grey Cup with the Toronto Argonauts. But he would retire the following year.

Information was not as accessible so, despite being concussed, Boulay kept playing, worsening his injury.

“Whenever you’re dizzy, whenever you have headaches, whenever you feel like throwing up, you feel like in a daze after a hit, that happened hundreds of time,” Boulay said.

“I would always come back to normal very quickly, but as the season went on the recovery time that took me a split second to go back to normal would stretch a little longer. Until 2011 when I hit a wall.”

“That concussion put me over the top for a few months,” he said.

“It’s a weird thing because you walk into a locker room with a bunch of your boys and you have no crutches, no bruise, you have nothing, you look fine but you don’t feel fine, its not a fun feeling.” — Etienne Boulay

Playing through concussions can have many negative effects, so when an athlete forces himself back on the field after experiencing symptoms, their injury can get significantly worse.

“When you’re playing through a concussion the problem is that you can have damage on top of damage,” said Singh Saluja. “First of all, when you have a concussion, it decreases your reaction time, so once you have a concussion, chances of having another concussion is much more significant.”

For players who are used to being told to suck it up and keep going, it’s especially more difficult to speak about depression.

“It’s a weird thing because you walk into a locker room with a bunch of your boys and you have no crutches, no bruise, you have nothing, you look fine but you don’t feel fine, its not a fun feeling,” Boulay said.

After his career, like many athletes before and after him, Boulay suffered from depression, which was exasperated by his concussions.

“I was tired, just physically exhausted like I am after every season, but the concussions was hard man,” Boulay said. “I was able to play in 2012, [but there] was something that I kept in the back of my mind that was stressful, something I was still feeling at times even though I wasn’t telling anyone.”

“At first it was really hard because you’re still in the storm, you can’t see too far ahead and you’re just trying to survive,” Boulay continued. “I went on a huge partying phase trying to escape something and I went downhill real fast. It was hard.”

Concussions have been linked to depression. The Montreal Neurological Institute has done some studies on this issue. They conducted a study on 50 adolescents, 35 without and 15 with concussions. In this test, doctors use an fMRI scan to look at brain activity, and conclude whether or not an athlete with a concussion can return to his normal activities.