Full video

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[Music]

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when i

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lift weights i don't hear things i don't

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see things i know it sounds weird but

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i'm so focused on lifting

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that everything else kind of blanks out

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[Music]

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when i was super depressed weightlifting

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was a reason

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to do something i do think it helped me

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manage those mood swings

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you know being bipolar is something that

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i'm proud to say like i'm okay with it

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and i would like to erase a stigma on

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all mental disorders

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[Music]

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growing up sports were always pretty

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important to my family

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and i spent 11 years doing gymnastics

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when i was 15 years old i decided to end

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my career in gymnastics

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and i found crossfit just to stay in

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shape through crossfit

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my current coach recruited me to get

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into

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weightlifting competitively and i

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decided to

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take that on full time from there

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i've been weightlifting for about four

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years my first national

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competition was youth nationals in 2016.

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about two years into my career i kind of

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realized i could

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go places with this in 2018 i had my

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first international medals

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at the junior world championships and

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from there it kind of took off and last

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year in 2019

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and my breakout year the highlight would

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be

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my 2019 world championship

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last year i had a minor meet in cuba

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and i just didn't want to lift i wasn't

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feeling motivated i didn't have that

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fire in me that i usually do

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i bombed out which means you don't make

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a lift when i got home i

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didn't really get out of bed for about a

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week

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and i had been dealing with you know

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bouts of depression for

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probably two years at that point that

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was kind of my breaking point

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when i decided i needed help and when i

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finally went to

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the doctor the psychiatrist almost

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immediately

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recognized my symptoms and i was

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diagnosed with bipolar

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disorder type 2. one of the first things

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i thought was that i'm crazy because it

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has kind of been put in my head

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that there's a stereotype around people

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that struggle with mental health

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it didn't take me long to realize that

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there's nothing to be ashamed of

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and i think i decided very early on that

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i was going to share this journey with

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others in hopes that it would help other

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people

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get health faster than i did

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once i got help i could go to training

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and focus on weightlifting

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not on if i'm gonna feel great today or

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if i'm gonna feel awful

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at this point i'm all but qualified for

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the olympics so

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i'm really excited to train for that and

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i'm hoping to meddle there

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and represent the usa for the first time

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there are some days that i literally

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have to

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push to my maximal effort and

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be about one rep away from failure and

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it's not fun it can be very painful

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but you know when it comes down to it

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those are the days you get stronger

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it's a lot of hard work and then it's

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really awesome to just

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put everything into those few seconds

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that you're competing hey everybody my

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name is drew beebe

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and i'm here in my terrible home studio

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that i've made during quarantine

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and i wanted to tell you about our new

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podcast called great big story

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it's got more surprising and delightful

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