AJ Lee Opens Up About Battling Mental Illness At C2E2

It is a powerful stance to take, naming a book the way former WWE Raw General Manager and Diva of the Year, AJ Lee did.

Legally known as AJ Mendez Brooks, the now-30 year old wife of CM Punk gave personal insight into the memoir Crazy is My Superpower at the Twitch Live Stream stage at C2E2.

Lee was open and honest with fans in Chicago — the place she now calls home.

“I wanted to show people that this crazy character was rooted in reality in some way,” she said.

Crazy is my Superpower is a look at her harrowing tale on how Lee conquered her mental illness and used it to help inspire her WWE persona “AJ Lee”.

For someone who describes herself as private, Lee saw the opportunity to use the book to open herself up and show people her world and her experiences battling mental illness — and the stigmas that often accompany them.

“I am bipolar and because I can feel so strongly all the time, I do believe in the impossible and I think that is the gift that certain experiences with mental illness can give you,” she said.

During her time as a professional wrestler with the WWE, Lee amassed an enormous audience. Everyone from teenager to parents, her popularity has taken her all around the world. This book tour is no exception.

According to Lee, her favorite moments on this current tour include when fans come up to her explaining their own stories with mental illness and how her book helped them.

“Every interaction at my signings there’s always some talk about depression or mental illness or how that in someway involved their life and it makes me feel like ‘mission accomplished,’” she said. “This has become the most important thing I’ve done in my entire life.”

Lee continues with a story of how a fan brought her to tears recently after the fan let Brooks know after reading her book they were now inspired to pursue therapy.

She added that simply writing the book was no easy feat.

For Lee, one of the hardest parts about writing her book was what to include and what not to include.

“In the other two drafts of the book I hid so many stories that I was like ‘ok this is real’ I can’t go back once I tell people that I’ve overdosed or certain traumatic incidents in my childhood,” she said.

Doing the interview live from the Twitch stage, AJ ended the time on stage talking about her greatest love and savior: video games.

“For me growing up video games were the way to escape my reality and feel strong and capable. I would not have survived childhood without video games,” she said.

She’s a couple of years behind on current games but is currently playing Witcher 3.

Her WWE character is playable in several video games: WWE ’13 (as downloadable content), WWE 2K14, and WWE 2K15.

You can find out more about the book ‘Crazy is my Superpower’ by visiting her website www.ajmendezbrooks.com.

— Tyler LaRiviere is a reporter from Chicagoist.com and is working as a freelance journalist for ComicBook.com at C2E2.