#MyFocus - Jasmine Deveau - "I felt completely helpless"

When it comes to concussions, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who has gone through more than Digby native, Jasmine Deveau.

She’s fought through five, yes, five concussions through her life thus far and she’s come out the other side of adversity a stronger, more ready person to take on whatever comes at her.

“It was one of the most difficult, frustrating times of my life. I was unable to walk or talk, and I was losing feeling in the right sight of my body. I wasn’t feeling like myself. I started having suicidal thoughts, extreme anxiety & panic attacks, and I was getting migraines almost every other day.”    

All of that lead to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), she said.

“I was told that I was a walking miracle and he couldn’t believe that I was still functioning at the level I was. But I had to officially call it quits, I felt completely helpless. I lost sight of who I was, I became even more depressed, lost all of my motivation, and hardly left my room,”

“Stepping away from the game as a competitive athlete was one of the most crushing moments of my life. I lived, breathed, and felt sports like no other.”

Not only were the concussions impacting her ability to play the sport she loved, but she had to cut back in school as well.

“I had to half my courses in school, and take an extra year cutting out all of my academic courses because I no longer had the focus or brain capacity to stay at school for a full day. Academic courses became too challenging for me,”

“This was heartbreaking for me. I wasn’t even able to walk across the stage with my fellow classmates that I had been going to school with my entire life.”

Fast forward a few years and Jasmine feels like herself, which is something she wasn’t sure would ever happen again, she said.

“I see and feel the difference in myself. I am back taking academic courses with the grades of an honour student. I have my motivation back and I don’t get migraines anymore. My anxiety is still an issue, and so is the insomnia, but I don’t have suicidal thoughts anymore and the depression is eliminated.”

Deveau says the people around her, including family, friends, teammates, & coaches all brought her to where she is now and she can’t thank them enough for being there when she needed it most.

“Having a strong support system is one of the greatest things to offer while an athlete is struggling. It can potentially help them feel like themselves again.

Though there will be people who won’t be able to understand just what you’re going through and the struggles you are faced with, Jasmine says you can’t let that impact your recovery.

“Be true to yourself and the way you feel and let yourself heal. The feelings or opinions of others isn’t worth putting your own health in jeopardy.”

Deveau, who has begun coaching since having to quit playing, says her experiences as a player has changed her perspective as a coach and have forced her to prioritize health and well-being over the game itself.

She doesn’t want anyone else to experience what she did, she said.

“I try to preach to them now as a coach that your health is more important than playing in a game and to not push yourself to extremes. One of the most difficult times of my life happened when I had to quit sports and I would absolutely hate to see one of my athletes have to quit the thing they love because the proper measures weren’t taken in their recovery.”