Former hockey defenseman Boris Valábik (40) announced the end of his active career in the summer of 2017. Shortly after returning from overseas, he was hit with sad news. His father lost his battle with a serious diagnosis. At that time, Valábik was 32 years old. The former hockey player spoke about this extremely difficult period in a podcast moderated by influencer Matej Zrebný.
After returning home, he found entertainment. “A studio apartment would be enough for me, I started playing computer games so I wouldn’t think. Okay, a one-room flat,” he admitted. He struggled with real emotions while playing video games. The former hockey defenseman played a team-based online action game in which players fight against each other in detailed models of historical and modern tanks in order to destroy the enemy team or capture their base.
“Tanks were too demanding for me, because I always have a fourteen-year-old there… I imagined a buffalo in my mother’s basement, playing all day. And I come there for half an hour to clear my head, so that I don’t think about nonsense and always get eliminated. A few monitors fell victim” he joked.
In the past, he condemned playing computer games. “I used to be like, well, it’s not real life, but now I’m really into it. This helps me not to think and maybe fall asleep more easily afterwards. As long as I don’t get upset, unless someone blows me up. And this helps me. Some people are helped by psychology, some are helped by the church, some are unfortunately only helped by drugs or the like. But we all have to find something for ourselves. And I’m not ashamed to play anymore” he said honestly.
His habits may seem quite flighty to some. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if you feel the same way. I would, when I start thinking and i start beating myself up and a lot of times, you know, the death of my father and the injuries and sometimes it gets to you. So I must be really, with a podcast in my ear, a computer game and some absolute nonsense going on in the background on my phone. And I know that every psychiatrist now, if he hears this, says, friend, your brain will explode within three years. And I myself hope that it will pass. But yes, I have to distract myself, because when I’m left to my own devices in my difficult moments, it… I wouldn’t sleep,” he revealed dark thoughts.
The former hockey defenseman admitted that he does not trust the Slovak system. “That’s when I start blaming myself for a lot of things. As I trusted the Slovak healthcare system, I left it as it was. However, my father died of cancer and they gave him an MRI in 4 months, so it probably won’t be that serious“, he spoke about one of the most difficult periods of his life.
He realizes that he won’t change things anymore. “And a lot of regrets that I would do differently, but I know it’s nonsense, because they can no longer be corrected, they can no longer be done differently. But it’s just that when I have a day like that, how it comes, I never know what the trigger is. But, for example, that’s why I say that I’m not ashamed of the computer game, because it will help me stop it. For a moment, you have to focus on the 14-year-old in his mother’s basement who wants to blow you up,” added Valábik.
