I'm so thrilled to visit with my good friend, Michael Garfield Levine, and hear some of his stories, struggles, and triumphs in dealing with his mental health. We go back a long way and this was a good opportunity to hear how cycling played a role in his health and how he ultimately found the help he needed.
Michael Garfield Levine has appeared in numerous roles in classic American and Shakespearean theater, Off and Off-Off-Broadway, and commercials and voiceovers for television and radio. He's had roles in several movies, Law and Order, The Sopranos, and daytime dramas. He studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner, Willaim Esper, and William Alderson. He was a founding member of Circle Repertory's Lab Workshop. Michael was a junior national ski racer and professional ski instructor. He has coached Ironman triathletes, bicycle racers, and actors. He has led workshops with his wife Nancy O'Hara for couples in relationships. He raced bicycles for 30 years competing among National Champions, Olympians, and Tour de France winners. He has ridden 24-hour cycling marathons, soloed across the US and Canada, the routes of The Tour de France; and numerous ultra-endurance cycling events and triathlons. Michael drove a taxi cab in New York City for five years and lived to tell about it. Recently, he taught creative writing and story-telling in a prison. Mr. Levine resides in The Hudson Valley where he writes and rides.
Michael Garfield Levine has written a one-man show, called Spinning My Wheels, a solo performance memoir chronicling his adventure of recovery on and off the bike.
In Spinning My Wheels, Michael, an angry-at-the-world actor, fights to escape the effects of the PTSD and mental illness handed down by his larger-than-life WW ll veteran father. Dogged by decades of crushing anxiety and suicidal depression, he desperately struggles to prove that he is as tough and heroic as his dad. He hits bottom after bottom but never gives up on his hope of achieving some semblance of sanity. Little by little he climbs out of his psychic descent through life-changing encounters with a Zen master, a Holocaust survivor, and a meditation teacher who becomes his wife. When he’s finally ready to face his father, Michael finds him slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s. But it is here at his bedside that he finally discovers peace, and once and for all forgives both himself and his father.
High fives all around. Let's do this!
Do you have a personal story that you'd like to share? Do you know of other athletes who are open to talking about their mental health and its relationship to sports? Send me a note at [email protected].
And if you're struggling right now, reach out to a loved one, training partner, coach, or doctor, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. You are not alone.
This episode was produced by Mark Still - [email protected] - @uphillstill - @thepracticalstill
