Former North Melbourne and Sydney player Wayne Schwass has revealed he battled depression for more than half his Australian Rules Football (AFL) career.

Schwass, 37, who played AFL between 1988 and 2002, has broken his silence to highlight what he said was a "disturbing and largely neglected problem" in the community.

"I went through long periods of negative thoughts about myself," he told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper.

"It didn't matter what I was achieving on the sporting field, I just had a very poor opinion of myself," he said.

"I thought I was a failure. I thought I was weak."

Schwass, who no longer drinks alcohol, said he became a binge drinker who would "drown his sorrows" after football games in order to cope with his illness.

Schwass said he contemplated suicide several times in the early 1990s.

"It was a confusing time. I didn't have the skills to cope with mental illness," he said.

"Here I was, I was 25, playing the greatest game at the highest level, I was vice-captain to one of the greatest players ever to play the game (Wayne Carey) and my world was just falling apart," he said.

"I really struggled to get through the days.

"This went on for years."

He said he was saved by the then North Melbourne team doctor Harry Unglik, who recognised he had a serious problem.

"I relied on Harry more than anybody else in the footy club for probably two or three years."

Schwass is launching the Sunrise Foundation in Melbourne on Wednesday.

He said the foundation, of which he is the CEO, hoped to raise $1.5 million annually to help promote awareness of mental illness.

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