Lewis on mental health after prior anxiety struggles: "I'm in a much better place now"

PDC
Tuesday, 15 March 2022 at 12:30
WLDCHAMPS RD1 JLEWIS11A
Jamie Lewis reached the semi-finals of the PDC World Darts Championship in 2018 and had the darting world at his feet with Premier League mooted and other incentives.
But Lewis found the harsh reality of coming back down after that high as he fell down the PDC rankings and dealt with anxiety issues away from the oche.
'Fireball' is looking to return though and played Q-School at the turn of the year as he begins to get his form back.
"I went to Q-School, obviously I didn't get through. I got through to the final stage, I only played the first two days as I was a bit ill for the last two so I had to go home which was a bit unfortunate," said Lewis to Tungsten Tales.
"Things are hopefully starting to get back to normal now. I'm going to try and go to as many tournaments as I can enter and get my form back."
But what is the difference between Lewis as he is now and returning to his top form?
"Consistency and a bit of lack of confidence in my own game as well. Q-School if it had been another month maybe and a bit more practice I would have been more ready for it. I was quite happy with how I played in patches."
"I want to try and do a lot of tournaments this year, I'm going to do a few of the WDF ones as well to keep the arm in and keep competitive. It'll all be aiming towards January then and Q-School again."
Like alluded to, he dealt with problems off the oche but was glad to seek help and believes he is all the better for it.
"I'm in a much better place now. It all sprung around the time COVID happened. It was obviously hard at the time and there's nothing that the PDC could have done, we were going away playing these six days in a row. It all got on top of me."
"The change for me, it didn't agree with me. We weren't allowed to leave the house back home and it all got on top of me. I had the chance to speak to Sporting Chance through the PDPA and that helped a lot. Now I'm in a lot better place."