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Tyndall specializes in mental health issues at the Veterans Administration health care facility in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. Most of her clients are veterans who battle depression and other issues. She was in court to talk about Michael Sandknop.

The former Army Reservist who lives in Festus isn’t seeing Tyndall because of any issues he suffered related to deployments. Instead, his depression, she says, comes from his seven-year battle to seek justice after he was fired as a contractor working with the Missouri National Guard.

An inspector general’s report — which Sandknop needed congressional help to obtain — validated his complaint that he was wrongly fired from his job running a multimedia team tasked with producing a television show about the Guard. Sandknop’s years-long obsession to clear his name and seek accountability for his job loss has dominated his life since then, Tyndall says, and is a contributing factor to his depression.

“He wants them to own that they did something wrong,� she said on the witness stand. “To get some justice is what he needs to move forward.�

A jury will ultimately decide what justice looks like in the case. Part of that answer, I suspect, will be related to what the various jurors think about the realities of mental health in America.

Biles did her part to try to erase the stigma of discussing mental health by going public with the fact that the stress of Olympic pressures had become so weighty that she needed to step away. Her decision comes about a month after Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka shocked the world by withdrawing from the French Open for similar reasons.

“I feel uncomfortable being the spokesperson or the face of athlete mental health as it’s still so new to me and I don’t have all the answers,� Osaka wrote in Time Magazine before the Olympics. “I do hope that people can relate and understand , and it’s OK to talk about it. There are people who can help, and there is usually light at the end of any tunnel.�

I worry about the light at the end of Sandknop’s tunnel. Like other whistleblowers — he believes he was fired for going to the inspector general with complaints about the Guard — the pressure of the government going after you is not easily shed, even if a jury gives him some level of the justice he seeks.

The good news is Tyndall says he’s “motivated.� He knows he needs help, and he seeks it.

That’s why mental health experts are generally so grateful when a big name — like Biles or Osaka — talks about their own mental health. It increases the potential for people who need services to seek them.

That problem has become even more acute during the nation’s battle with COVID-19. Earlier this year, nonprofit Mental Health America issued its on the state of mental health in the U.S. Among the findings:

• 60% of youth with major depression received no mental health treatment in 2017-2018.

• More than 38% are not receiving mental health services they need, even in states with the greatest access.

• Only 27.3% of youths with severe depression received consistent treatment.

• 23.6% of adults with a mental illness reported an unmet need for treatment in 2017-2018. This number has not declined since 2011.

The fear among some mental-health professionals is that the need will be even greater in coming years as people deal with various effects of the pandemic, from isolation to evictions and homelessness, and long-term health problems related to the virus.

In 2020, there were massive increases, the Mental Health America report found, of people being screened for potential problems with anxiety and depression, particularly among young people.

After she made worldwide headlines during the Olympics, Biles, who is 24, tweeted this: “The outpouring love & support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before.�

Indeed, we are all more than that which sometimes drags us down. Sometimes, it just takes a little help to come to that realization. It’s OK to not be OK.