Gina Carlson speaks out against cyber bullying in Instagram post

(WUSA 9) -- Professional athletes are easy targets on social media.

Unfortunately, so are their significant others.

John Carlson's wife, Gina, was the target of online bullying when she would post about missing her husband.

In a recent post on Instagram, Carlson said that someone told her, “'There are wives who’s husbands are fighting for this country making next to nothing compared to your husband,' and that I had no reason to complain."

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I wanted to share an article (on my stories) & encourage anyone who has the belief that because a person is rich, successful, or whatever it is one has that makes you assume that his or her life is perfect, to read this. In the past 5 months, I’ve received 4 (not bad for how many internet bullies there are) negative messages. Back when I first had Rudy, John left for a road trip & I wrote how sad I was he was leaving. 1. I am allowed to miss my husband & be lonely even though he is a professional athlete & makes a lot of money. 2. No one knew I was in the darkest place of my life.. (something that was not shared on my instagram bc it was about my son & no ones business but our family’s, ) . Someone wrote to me “there are wives who’s husbands are fighting for this country making next to nothing compared to your husband,” and that I had no reason to complain. I simply blocked the person bc I was not in a place to even entertain this ignorance. The one I received a few days ago said from my posts I came across “spoilt” “ungrateful” & “many moms would love to have my problems.” (Here you are using your Instagram to write me a me a hurtful message, I’m using mine to raise money for children’s cancer, yet, you called me a brat?) It’s sad to me, people take the time out of their day to write a person they don’t even know something negative. Instagram is an extremely false world where people decide they think they know everything about you by simply following the posts you choose to share.. Mental illness doesn’t hold back from anyone- rich, famous, athlete, singer, stay at home mom, NO ONE!!! The suicide, overdose & divorce rate in Hollywood should speak for itself. EVERYONE struggles, & to ever negate a persons feelings bc of the idea you have of her life is disgusting to me. Anyone who seeks out a person to write something negative to them, is pathetic. It’s not ok. We all have feelings, struggles, sadness, stress, bad days and good days. A quote I’ve always loved, “be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” ❤️

A post shared by Gina Carlson (@gnanucci) on Sep 29, 2018 at 5:13am PDT

In her post, Gina says, "Mental illness doesn’t hold back from anyone- rich, famous, athlete, singer, stay at home mom, NO ONE!!! The suicide, overdose & divorce rate in Hollywood should speak for itself. EVERYONE struggles."

During the Caps media luncheon, WUSA 9's Darren Haynes asked John Carlson about his wife's post.

"I think her point is that everyone's always going through something, and people need to be more aware of that," says the Capitals defenseman. "People talk before they think sometimes, and everyone goes through different experiences. Everyone is dealing with something, and a lot of people deal with depression and anxiety. It is something you don't want to talk about . It needs to be talked about. People need to be more aware because a lot of bad things happening right now, and I think a lot of it stems from saying something before you think about it."

Carlson admits it can be tough being on the road for an extended period of time, unable to be physically with Gina all the time.

"I'm lucky with my wife's family living close. And now we've got two kids, they keep her pretty busy as well. But it's never nice being away, and I love to spend time [with them]."