A small gathering of some of America's greatest Black athletes competing at the highest level, but underneath it all, privately struggling with their mental health.

I'm learning how to live a new life in this new pain, in this journey of grief that's like a roller coaster.

What a play back at the 13-yard line by Solomon Thomas. In 2018, New York Jets defensive lineman Solomon Thomas had just finished his rookie year. Shortly after, his sister Ella died by suicide. That's when he says his mental health struggles began.

I grew up the mentality, Hey, be a man, be tough, push through it. After my sister died, I had all these emotions and feelings I had never felt before, like deep depression, deep guilt.

For Olympian track and field athlete, Anna Anna Cockeril.

Wow, Anna Coquereau went blowing by.

It was her third year of college when she began to struggle.

A lot of the typical depression symptoms that you hear about just didn't apply to me. I was doing all the things you're supposed to do and still felt terrible.

For three-time NBA All-Star-Towns, no hesitation. Swedish. Timberwolves center Carl Anthony Towns. It was after losing multiple family members, including his beloved mother to COVID-19, that the world came to a standstill.

It was the first time in a way the world was silent. In that silence, I realized that in this whole process, I never took time to take care of myself. I got to a point where I had to start realizing I was the iterating.

Their struggles as unique as their path to healing.

My college coach pulled me into her office and she was like, What is going on? You're smiling and there's no light behind your eyes.

Someone else recognized it before you really wanted to acknowledge it.

Absolutely. I just broke down. She called one of the therapists that day and was like, When is your earliest appointment? Anna's going to come in.

For me, my general manager, John Lynch, came up to me and said, Hey, Sally, we have help for you if you need. It was that night that I went home and I faced myself in the mirror. From that, I started going to therapy.

Got I know, Carl, you did it what some people probably call it unconvincent of a way. You didn't go to therapy. No.

If it wasn't for Arnie, he was the head of the medical department. We've had a close connection. He's known me for so long. He knew my mother. He would talk about 2 hours a day. I just tell him how I feel. Tell them the mental struggles I'm going through, the thoughts I'm having. I felt very comfortable in having those tough conversations with someone that was familiar to me.

There are many barriers to having these tough conversations in the Black community. A Among them, stigma, access, high cost, and shame. Statistics show that only one in three Black adults with mental illness obtain treatment.

How did your teammates react? How did your family react?

I told them after the fact, but once I started going and started feeling better, that's what opened the door to the conversation because there was a noticeable difference. Therapy is great when you're in the crisis, but I found the most benefit from it when I was going consistently because sometimes you need to get to the root of the problem not just treat the symptoms. I think at first my parents, they just didn't quite understand. I think there was a lot of struggle for them of thinking, What did we do wrong? Did we make a mistake? And having to reassure them.

Almost like a new era because I didn't have parents who were going to be into therapy. It was like, if you're feeling that way, you suck it up and you get through it. You figure it out.

Old school route.

Not that they didn't care about our feelings. They didn't want to hear our feelings. They didn't know how to handle it themselves. Absolutely.

Therapy saved my life. For me, my mom really encouraged me to go to therapy, and I was really resistant. I was reluctant. Your goal is to always be the best you that you can ever be. That's why therapy is so important because it helped me find out who I was.

This is 2024 now, When we were having this conversation, I came into the NFL 1993, and it was definitely a totally different world way back then as far as your mental health wasn't even addressed in so many ways. It was definitely a stigma of shame. Was there any embarrassment that you were struggling?

I felt a lot of shame. I was really embarrassed.

When you're stuck in that cycle, you feel so empty, you feel so alone, and you feel like you're the only one going through it to a point where you even feel like you're crazy and you're not. You're human.

What do you think are the biggest misconceptions when it comes to mental health in the black community?

The weakness of showing vulnerability.

I think, speaking very broadly, as a black community, we are very protective of our image as a community. I think there's some shame and some stigma of wanting to keep things in house for fear of what it will look like if it goes beyond our homes or our families.

I think it's a generational trait. I think so, too. It's something that has plagued our community because of how strong we had to be for so long just to get the rights. We refuse to allow anything to ruin what we've built.

It's seen as a weakness. If one person is weak, then the community is weak, I guess. But what can we do to change it? How can we change it? Things like this.

Moments like this. Being able to have four African-Americans on couch here talking openly about our struggles and how we've dealt with it.

Anna, we know for black women that their pain is truly often ignored. How does this play into your mental health journey and your advocacy?

I think that's a big reason for my advocacy at all, to speak specifically to black women's experiences and just letting them know that you don't have to take everything on. Your pain, your experience, your voice, your struggles, your success, they all matter.

Why is it important for us sitting here today, athletes, successful to share and talk about mental health?

Because I feel fans think we're the most got it together people in the world and got absolutely no problems.

If we can have this conversation, have people see that they're not the only ones feeling like this, these conversations can save these lives.

I would say as I got older, you just realized that self-care truly is the biggest gift you could give yourself. In a way, it's the cheapest, most expensive gift you could be ever gifted.

I look at this as sometimes a tough topic, but I look at this conversation as a celebration. The celebration of being free enough, confident enough, strong enough, supported enough to share how you truly feel to the world. You're serving a greater good by being here.

Our thanks to Michael. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free confidential help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call or text the National Lifeline at 988. Hi, everyone. George Stefanopoulos here. Thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel. If you'd like to get more videos, show highlights, and watch live event coverage, click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel. Don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts. Thanks for watching.