Savannah Bananas Star Opens Up About Secret Battle With Panic Attacks

Published: May 7, 2026

By Mallory Mattingly

Savannah Bananas star Jackson Olson isn’t always the happy guy everyone sees on the field. In fact, he battled some pretty severe panic attacks.

“I’m standing out there and I [had] this really out-of-body experience where I was talking to myself and trying to get myself out of it,” Olson told Sports Illustrated earlier this month, a little over a year after his first panic attack in February 2025. “But it didn’t even feel like it was me talking or me moving. I wasn’t really controlling my body, and it was a very weird feeling. That created so much anxiety for me not being able to feel everything. I’m like, ‘Am I having a stroke?'”

Later, the banana ball player was told he had a panic attack, which ultimately took him out of the game in the second inning.

“That moment caused a ripple effect for the next three months of like, ‘I hope this doesn’t come back’, and then it would come back in the middle of a game,” Olson continued. “I’m like, ‘Well, I can’t play.’ I have to go into the locker room and just sit there with my hands on my head and just wait for it to go away.”

“In the next 24 hours, I would wonder what everyone’s thinking. Like all the fans were like, ‘What happened to Jackson? Is he sick? What’s going on?'” he recalled.

Olson shares much of his life on social media as a content creator; however, in February and March of 2025, he rarely posted. When Olson and the team went to Disneyland for the first time in May, he felt the panic attacks had subsided, and he wanted to share his journey with his followers.

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“I think a lot of people see me and they think, ‘Oh, that’s just the happiest kid in the world, he’s just playing and dancing on a baseball field and talking about how much he loves life and Disney and Taylor Swift,'” he said. “But it was cool to be able to share I’m also human like everyone else. Even though I’m doing these fun things, I still deal with anxiety.”

He’s pushed through, though, thanks to his friends and family.

“So how did it change so quickly? How did it go away? Simple. It was my friends, my family, and finding joy in the little things,” he said last September. “Seeing my nephew laugh, going golfing with my brother, and spending time outside instead of rotting in my bed for hours and hours.”

“I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened this year. From visiting ESPN HQ to our Banana day at Disney to getting my first-ever TV commercial, it’s been a wild one,” Olson continued. “But I never would’ve been able to do it all without my friends and family…To my teammates, my family and all of you: you’re the reason I get up every morning ready to crush the day. Anxiety is real. Mental health is important. And friendship is the key. Always know you’re not alone, that’s the first step. Love you guys❤️”