Herschel Walker’s life was going great.

He was wrapping up a successful football career, running a profitable business and had a baby boy on the way.

DRC/Gary Payne

Herschel Walker signs a copy of his book, Breaking Free: My Life With Dissociative Identity Disorder, for Jeanette McDonald and Debbie Hvostik, right, at Hannah’s Off the Square in Denton on Thursday. Walker is a former Dallas Cowboys running back.

View larger More photos Photo store

Then about 10 years ago, he suddenly developed an anger problem. Walker’s journey to discover the root of the problem took him to numerous preachers and doctors and ended with one doctor’s diagnosis: Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly known as multiple personalities.

“I thought it was a joke,” Walker said. “I started to laugh and say ‘I don’t believe in that stuff.’ I started doing therapy with him, and I saw what he said had some merit to it. I went to a hospital in California and started getting better. As I was writing, really for myself as therapy, it turned into a book. It really just took off.”

Walker’s therapeutic writing turned into Breaking Free: My Life With Dissociative Identity Disorder, a chronicle of the Heisman Trophy winner’s revelation of having DID and how he worked to overcome it.

Walker has been touring the country to promote the book and bring attention to DID in conjunction with University Behavioral Health. That tour stopped in Denton on Thursday when Walker made trips to Univer­sity Behavioral Health of Denton, Presbyterian Hospital of Denton and even a Ryan High School football practice.

Walker concluded his stop with a book signing at Hannah’s Off the Square.

“He [Walker] has a mission for himself of bringing a message out to people who have mental health issues, that it’s a strength to ask for help, not a weakness,” said UBH of Denton Chief Executive Officer Susan Young. “He wants people to know he’s had issues and he sees that as something very positive. He doesn’t want anybody to be uncomfortable or ashamed.”

After seeking help himself, Walker said he wanted to make sure people like him could get help as well, which is why he aligned himself with UBH. Walker believes many people with mental health issues — including substance abuse — are afraid to seek help.

“Some people are just afraid to admit it,” he said. “They’re so afraid of how people are going to look at them or what people are going to say about them.”

Through his entire life, Walk­er had no idea he had DID. He won the Heisman Trophy with the Georgia Bull­dogs. He was already a well-known running back when he started his NFL career with the Cowboys.

His best season came in 1989, when he rushed for more than 1,500 yards. He was traded the next year to the Vikings in a deal that helped build Dallas’ dynasty in the 1990s.

That all occurred without a hitch until 10 years ago, when his anger problem emerged.

Walker said his DID developed as he tried to cope with his perceived shortcomings.

“I never really noticed anything,” he said. “It just automatically happened. I used to have a speech impediment. I was afraid to make speeches. I got to where I could make speeches. I never even liked football and I was out there playing football. It was just automatic. Getting better, you integrate all that together. You have pieces of a pie and now you make a whole pie.”

After touring the country to speak about mental health issues, Walker said he believes the public has a misguided view of mental illness. He describes DID as a coping mechanism and thinks people get their views on it from movies like Sybil, which tells the story of a drastically tortured woman with at least 16 personalities.

He is critical of the NFL’s substance abuse policy, which suspends players without offering treatment. He said he hopes his work will help people come to terms with their problems and then seek treatment.

“People suffer from alcohol [addiction], but that’s not the root of the problem,” he said. “That’s one thing I’m incessant with in the facilities and people I’m working with. I don’t want to treat people for alcohol, be­cause that may not be the problem. I want them to get a total evaluation and find out what the root of the problem is so we’re not just scratching over the surface, where alcohol gets better for a month and then you’re back doing the same things.”

JEFF ANDREWS can be reached at 940-566-6873. His e-mail address is jandrews@dentonrc.com .