Johnny Manziel says he's bipolar, working on comeback
— -- Johnny Football wants a comeback.
In an interview with "Good Morning America" that aired Monday, Heisman Trophy winner and NFL bust Johnny Manziel said he has been diagnosed as bipolar and is taking medication for it. And his goal is to get back on the football field.
"I am watching all the other guys doing what I want to be doing and I am sitting on a couch being a loser," Manziel said.
Manziel said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder "about a year ago." He added that he has stopped drinking, saying that he had used alcohol as a way of "self-medicating" as he battled depression.
"At the end of the day I can't help that my wires are a little bit differently crossed than yours, I can't help my mental makeup of the way that I was created,"? Manziel said. "But I know if I stay on these meds and I continue to do what I am doing right now ... I think my dad, my mom, I think [girlfriend Bre Tiesi], would all agree that they see a drastic change."
Manziel won the Heisman Trophy at Texas A&M in 2012, becoming the first freshman to claim the award. And he was a first-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2014. But after two unremarkable seasons, he was out of the league.
He acknowledges there's no one to blame except himself after the drinking binges documented on social media and a run-in with the law that included a domestic assault charge.
"You are left staring at the ceiling by yourself and in that depression and back in that dark hole of sitting in a room by yourself, super depressed, thinking about all the mistakes you made in your life," he said. "What did that get me? Where did that get me except out of the NFL? Where did that get me? Disgraced."
Manziel says he's been working out and trying to convince some NFL team to give him a second chance.
"I don't know what kind of comeback it will be," he said, "but I know I want to get back on a football field to what brought me so much joy in my life and it makes me happy doing as my job."
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