A'ja spoke about her anxiety and depression in another personal essay, published in the Player's Tribune in March 2021, revealing that she'd begun suffering panic attacks after facing defeat in the 2020 WNBA finals. "Yes, I battled depression. After an MVP season. Yes, I had panic attacks. After an MVP season," she wrote. "That's not weakness. It's not a sob story. It's just real." And though she kept her struggles to herself, she eventually decided to seek help.
During her March 2021 appearance on CBS News, A'ja talked about the relief she felt in being able to share her experiences. "Mental health is always something that's really tough to talk about. But I'm glad that athletes that are on a platform can share our stories in a way to show people that we're all going through it," she said. "The biggest thing how I deal with it is just understanding that I have to feel the feelings . . . I think I got caught up in trying to face and be that person that each fan or each person wanted me to be, and that's just physically impossible."