Former Iowa State University men’s basketball star Royce White spoke with about 100 community members about living with an anxiety disorder and how he challenged the NBA on its mental health policies for its basketball players.

“I’m here to talk to you about the most important issue that any of us in this room will face,” White began. “Hands down the most important issue, and that’s mental health.”

White’s address centered around moving away from discussing mental health in “clinical terms” and toward understanding it as part of the human condition.

White was the 16th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, selected by the Houston Rockets. He ultimately did not play during his rookie season while he advocated for the NBA to create a player mental health policy, sacrificing a promising professional hoops career.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Royce White, a former Iowa State University men’s basketball star, poses with a group of fans at Fort Dodge Senior High’s Gail Niceswanger Little Theater Tuesday night.

“A huge part of this conversation is about confronting your own darkness,” White said. “It’s not easy.”

Mental health and mental illness aren’t topics that can be avoided, he said. As one of the nation’s top college athletes, White was open about his generalized anxiety disorder diagnosis when he played in the NCAA, and he continued to use his platform to be an advocate for mental illness awareness as he started his professional career.

“I think mental health is the greatest social issue that we face in any respect,” White said. “And I think it’s important for anybody to use any platform they can acquire to talk about important issues.”

The event was hosted by the Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency, NAMI of Iowa and UnityPoint Health — Berryhill Center. NAMI of Iowa is the state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“The purpose (of this event) is to help people understand what the local NAMI affiliate can do for our communities,” said Jeff Herzberg, Prairie Lakes AEA chief administrator. “First and foremost, that we need to get rid of the negative stigma of talking about mental health because unfortunately we haven’t made as much progress as we should in helping support people because we’re unwilling to talk about it.”

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Royce White, a former Iowa State University men’s basketball star, speaks on mental health at Fort Dodge Senior High's Gail Niceswanger Little Theater Tuesday evening.

NAMI and its local chapters are looking to start up that conversation.

According to NAMI, one in five adults, which is approximately 600,000 Iowans, live with some form of mental illness. NAMI works to create mentally healthy communities, said Heather Strachan, NAMI program director.

“We want the resources in our community to be able to deal with (mental illness),” Strachan said. “Clinicians can’t do it all.”

NAMI accomplishes its goals through evidenced-based programming that provides education, support groups, presentations and other avenues of advocacy, Strachan added.

For more information on NAMI of Iowa, visit www.namiiowa.org.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
About 100 people attended a mental health conversation with Royce White Tuesday evening at Fort Dodge Senior High’s Gail Niceswanger Little Theater. White is a former Iowa State University men’s basketball star.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert
Royce White, a former Iowa State University men’s basketball star, signs an autograph at Fort Dodge Senior High’s Gail Niceswanger Little Theater Tuesday evening.