Łukasz Kaczmarek finished his PlusLiga campaign in February in the middle of the month and did not show up for training or play in matches for 2.5 weeks. The club only announced on March 7 that the attacker was ready to play again after an absence caused by health problems.
– Łukasz has been struggling with depression for some time now. At some point he hit a wall and was unable to continue regular training or simply function normally. That is why we were forced to seek help from specialists – Jakub Michalak, the player's manager, revealed in March when the 29-year-old returned to play.
Łukasz Kaczmarek spoke about depression. “We live in difficult times”
Eventually, Kaczmarek returned to the game and won bronze with the Polish team. League of Nations and a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Paris. Before the start of the new club season, the attacker spoke more about his problems.
– I don't want to go back to what happened then, because it's still a difficult subject for me. I struggled with depression. I still take medication and work with an excellent psychiatrist: Piotr Wierzbiński. He's probably the best specialist in our country. I'm incredibly grateful that I ended up in such exceptional hands. I'm very happy with how quickly I was able to pull myself together. My loved ones gave me great support – Kaczmarek said in an interview with the portal WP SportoweFakty.
Kaczmarek emphasized that the support of his family and friends from both the volleyball and non-volleyball communities was very important to him. “I don't want to say that I've completely dealt with it, because I haven't. I still take medication, I still have better and worse moments. You don't get out of depression in one moment,” he emphasized.
He also pointed out that the volleyball community is aware of how serious a disease depression is. – In our sports we understand how difficult times we live in and what these kinds of issues are, he said.
– I want to emphasize that we cannot be afraid of this and we need to talk about it. In Poland, more people commit suicide every day due to depression than die in in cases cars. This is a terrible statistic, Kaczmarek said. He advised not to be afraid to talk about your problems.