Herschel Walker's first step was a bold one.
The former University of Georgia football star and Minnesota Vikings running back admitted he had a problem.
In his new book "Breaking Free" (Touchstone, 256 pages, $24.95), Walker describes his struggle with Dissociative Identity Disorder, a condition in which a person develops alternate personalities to deal with traumatic events.
Now Walker wants to help others by telling his story and by helping finance the development of several mental health hospitals around the country. "If they are feeling these feelings, I want them to realize 'you are not crazy,'" Walker said in an interview. 'You are not a loser. You are going through a tough time.'"
For Walker that lasted a long time. For years, particularly after his football career ended in 1998, he said as many as 12 alternate personalities controlled him. Walker said the disease, which has its roots in verbal abuse he got outside the home as a child, manifested itself in different forms over his lifetime. He said he very nearly took his own life and that of his former wife, Cindy Grossman. He would play Russian roulette. He threatened Grossman with guns, knives and a straight razor.
He said he doesn't remember most of those episodes but does believe they happened.
Walker said that while the personalities helped him overcome the odds in football and business, the problem was that he couldn't reconcile them.
"Think about a person [who] lives at home and wears a white hat," Walker said. "When he goes to play football he wears a red hat. When he goes to a business meeting he wears a blue hat. And when he is with his friends he wears a pink hat.
