Tavi Castro details his battle with depression, contemplating suicide, and how bodybuilding helped him find peace.
The last time we spoke with Tavi Castro he was in the middle of a lawsuit fighting for his company, Body Engineers. He has since been able to re-open the business and get back on track as an entrepreneur. But this recent struggle is just one in a long list of many throughout his life. He had previously been betrayed by a business owner in the past and also abandoned by his fiancé. On top of that, he was unknowingly suffering from an undiagnosed disorder. All of this built up to long bouts of depression and anxiety fo Tavi. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Tavi Castro dives deep into his mental health, his lowest points, and how he found healing through bodybuilding, training , and DJing.
It’s been a tough year for the bodybuilding community in 2020. Of course, the world crisis has put a halt to all competitions and derailed the IFBB and NPC season. But we also saw the tragic deaths of many young and beloved competitors. Two of which, Luke Sandoe and
That’s why we wanted to reconnect with Tavi Castro on a video call for a follow up interview. As we’ve spoken with him working on an upcoming project, Tavi had spoken to us about his own battle with depression. With mental health awareness growing every single year – we wanted to sit down with Tavi and hear his story.
Tavi Castro starts from the beginning, detailing his past struggles including being betrayed by a business partner and also betrayed by his then fiancé. While this was all happening, Tavi was also growing in popularity as a social media influencer. This spotlight, as he put it, created a new persona. There was Tavi Castro the real man and then there was Tavi Castro the Instagram influencer. The deeper trouble came when Tavi started associating his own worth with the social media version of himself.
Ultimately these factors all led into Tavi having long bouts of depression. Depression so deep that he had lost sleep completely (for 3 months) and contemplated suicide. While depression isn’t necessarily something you can “fix,” Tavi eventually found a way towards healing in the form of bodybuilding, training in the gym, DJing, and meditation.
These are all pursuits that Tavi had already been practicing – but is life as an entrepreneur pulled him away from consistency in these fields. Tavi needed to get back on track. He realized that weight training wasn’t just a means towards bodybuilding and a great physique, it was a form of meditation to keep him in the present and ward off negative thoughts.
As Tavi Castro describes it, his depression and anxiety came in the form of constantly focusing on the past and future simultaneously. Quickly bouncing back and forth like a pendulum, he would focus on regrets of the past while also having anxiety from overthinking the future. This kept him locked out of the present, locked out of being in the moment.
Now training, DJing, and meditation have become his foundation for keeping him centered. While no journey is perfect, it’s helped keep depression and anxiety at bay. And he wants that to be a message for all bodybuilders who may be struggling. While bodybuilders are certainly already training every single day – they must take a step back and realize that it’s more than just a tool for fitness. It can be a tool to help bring a present state of mind to other facets of life.
You can check out Tavi Castro’s full statements in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above. Stay tuned next week as Tavi dives deeper into mental health including discussing psychiatric help, medication, and how psychedelic drugs helped him find further inner peace.
