Softball On SI

Former Auburn Softball Player Details Husband’s Struggle with Life-Threatening OCD

A former Auburn softball player is speaking out about her husband's battle with life-threatening OCD, sharing their journey to raise awareness and support mental health.
Maren Angus-Coombs|
Former Auburn catcher Courtney Shea connects gets a hit during a home game in Auburn, Ala.
Former Auburn catcher Courtney Shea connects gets a hit during a home game in Auburn, Ala. | Auburn Athletics

This story explores suicide. If you are at risk, please stop here and contact 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for support.

It was a matter of life and death for former Auburn catcher Courtney Smith (Shea). Her husband needed help or else she would lose him forever.

Braden Smith, her husband and a right tackle for the Indianapolis Colts, was fighting a mental war she couldn't help with.

Just before Thanksgiving in 2024, Smith returned home from the Colts' facility to take a nap. Sleep became the only break he could get from religious scrupulosity, a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

That day, Courtney knew her husband only had two options. He could continue with medication and therapy or he could check into an intensive mental health facility.

One look into her husband's eyes was all she needed to encourage him to choose the latter.

“I’m looking at you,” Courtney recalled saying in an interview with the IndyStar. “I think you need to go to a facility.”

Smith knew his wife was right, but while he contemplated his options, Courtney told him she had changed the code to their gun safe.

“I was physically present, but I was nowhere to be found,” Smith said in an exclusive interview with IndyStar. “I did not care about playing football. I didn’t care about hanging out with my family, with my wife, with my newborn son. … I (felt like) was a month away from putting a bullet through my brain.”

The spiral began with a knee injury that forced him to undergo surgery during the offseason in 2024. He wanted to come stronger than ever, but the OCD worsened and got to the point where he considered retirement.

“He told me he was going to retire,” Courtney said. “We sat on the couch, we were across from each other, and he looked at me and he said, 'If this doesn't get better, I'm retiring after this year.' And I was like, 'This is not good,' because I know that he loves to play football. … It was kind of that night that I started to freak out.”

Therapy helped Smith, initially. Until it didn't.

The Smiths settled on a facility in Colorado where he ended up staying for 48 days. Even after the time spent there, he still scored 28 out of 40 on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, landing in the severe range.

The next and possibly final option was ibogaine, a psychoactive alkaloid compound derived from the iboga plant, a shrub native to Central Africa. It is illegal in the United States, and Smith had to travel to Mexico for a five-day stay at a facility.

Since returning home to Mountain Brook, Ala., Smith has been improving. He is going to therapy once a week and is focused on being a father and a husband.

“People ask me, ‘Is he better than when he left, is he the same, is this back to normal?’” Courtney said. “And I’m like, ‘This isn’t normal, this isn’t back to normal. This is a very intentional version of Braden that he’s never really been before. I think this is exactly who he’s meant to be, and who he’s always wanted to be.”

Smith still has OCD, but he scored a 12 out of 40 on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale after his last test, which is mild.

“I still have OCD, but it doesn’t have a hold over me,” Smith said. “It doesn’t dictate my life.”

More news: Kim Ng Becomes First Commissioner of Athletes Unlimited Softball League

More news: Megan Grant’s Journey from Darkness to Dominance Fuels UCLA Softball

More news: Social Media Erupts After Alabama Softball’s Stunning Upset of Oklahoma

Published | Modified
Maren Angus-Coombs
MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 for various outlets including Softball America, ESPNW and Hurrdat Sports. She is currently the managing editor of Softball On SI and also serves as an analyst for Nebraska softball games on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+.

Home/News