Mental Health In Sports
Any serious athlete knows all of the effort that goes into performing your best on game day. There is the grueling physical effort on the practice field and in the weight room, maintaining a healthy diet, good sleep habits, and building a championship, elite mindset. As athletes, from youth all the way to the pros, the best are always looking to find any angle or competitive edge in order to get to the next level.
No matter how good you are though, things don’t always work out as planned. No matter how well prepared you are, sometimes you will miss a shot, drop a pass, or make a mental mistake in a game. Every athlete has experienced this, and you’ve probably heard time and time again that it’s more about how you respond to adversity that separates the good from the elite. Generally, this is pretty good advice, but it also implies a certain level of grit and toughness to fight through adversity, whether it be mental or physical.
Sometimes though, it’s things outside the game that might start to impact your performance. It could be the pressure of playing at your best, family or school problems, or any other challenges in your life. You might be thinking that these types of things don’t have anything to do with your game time performance, but if you’ve been keeping up with the blog you’ll know that *every* aspect of your life is connected to your performance.
Any mental health issues that you might be having will absolutely impact you both on game day, and in your life. Ignoring your mental well being is like ignoring anything else that you need to take care of in order to perform at your peak. If you don’t address it, it will most likely come back to haunt you.
Back in the day, most athletes (and people in general), were more or less told to bury negative feelings, and believed that admitting to any sort of mental health challenges would be considered a sign of weakness. Luckily, science and public opinion have come a long way since then, and most now realize that taking care of your mental health is just as important as lifting weights and eating your vegetables.
While I will admit there is still *some* stigma associated with this sort of thing, I’m telling you right now that anyone that dismisses mental health is dead wrong. If you want to perform great, you need to feel great too. No matter if you’re just starting out or you’re already an elite athlete, it’s totally normal to have these feelings! Trust me, you’re not alone.
I really hope that this blog post will shed some light on issues that many athletes deal with, and how you can go about getting help and handling them.
Mental Health Issues In Young Athletes
If you break your arm, people will see the cast and know you have an injury. If you’re dealing with mental health issues, people aren’t able to see the pain and turmoil that you might be feeling. Think about some of the top athletes you know, whether it be a pro or simply the best player on your school team. Do you think you would really know if they were experiencing any issues?
According to a 2014 Australian study of elite athletes, as many as 25% suffered from one or more mental disorders. Some of these included:
Depression
Generalized anxiety disorders
Social anxiety disorders
Panic disorders and eating disorders
If you’re reading this, that means that either you or someone you know has suffered from at least one of these symptoms. It’s that prevalent. It doesn’t mean that you are weak or that something is wrong with you. Just like you go for an x-ray if you think you might have a broken bone, it’s important to reach out if you feel like you’re experiencing anything like the issues above or any other mental health issues.
How can these symptoms come about? Well, they can come from many different parts of your life that may or may not have anything to do with your sport at all.
Here are a few:
Performance expectations or failure
Injury
Low social support
A negative life event like a divorce or death in the family
Homesickness
Family issues
It’s hard to think of *anyone*, let alone any athlete, that hasn’t experienced at least one of these in their lifetime. As the data from the above study shows, this is a widespread occurrence. Learning how to spot it and effectively treat it will make you stronger, not weaker.
If you’re not convinced yet, here are a few elite athlete stories about dealing with mental health issues.
Michael Phelps
Perhaps one of the most well known athletes to speak publicly about mental health issues. Michael Phelps has been one of the most dominant athletes over the last 20 years. It might seem strange that someone who has reached the absolute pinnacle of their profession could feel like this. After the 2012 Olympics (in which he won 4 gold and 2 silver medals), he hit a personal low point. “I didn’t want to be in the sport anymore … I didn’t want to be alive anymore.”
He also stated, “I think people actually finally understand it is real. People are talking about it and I think this is the only way that it can change.” The fact that such an elite athlete would allow himself to be vulnerable in front of the world about his issues is a huge game changer in raising awareness of mental health issues. Even the absolute best are not immune from these issues, so if you’re feeling something similar, know that you’re not alone.
Jonny Wilkinson
In the early 2000s, back when a much larger stigma was placed on mental health issues, Jonny Wilkinson was perhaps the best rugby player in the world, captain of England and leading point scorer who led his team to their first World Cup victory.
“I’d allowed that World Cup to become a defining moment, it gave me the proof I needed that I was doing everything right, so it reinforced this idea that I needed to destroy myself physically and mentally. It took a few years for the pressure to really build. And then it exploded.”
I think this is an important statement. Defining your *life* through your performance on the field has the potential to always make you feel like you haven’t done enough. While I always advocate taking your routine and process seriously, it’s also incredibly important to take your own mental health seriously and to put things into perspective.
*Let’s take my career for example. Although I played baseball, I made sure not to make it my identity. My identity was and always will be to be the best husband and father I can be. Thinking this way helped keep me grounded, handle adversity, and always helped me realize that no matter how high or low my career was on the field, there were other things that mattered much more. This made the transition to my post-playing career much smoother because at the end of the day baseball was only what I did, it wasn’t who I was.
Robin Lehner
Robin Lehner is currently a goaltender for the Vegas Golden Knights in the NHL. In his career, he’s shown flashes of brilliance, but he’s dealt with substance abuse and mental health issues his whole career. While he was with the Buffalo Sabres in 2015, he left the team after suffering a panic attack. At that point, he stepped away from the team and the game in order to seek treatment. After being diagnosed and treated, he returned to the NHL and spoke publicly about his struggles.
"I took that first step and it's been life changing for me. I have to keep pushing, end the stigma. I'm not ashamed to say I'm mentally ill, but that doesn't mean I'm mentally weak."
He later worked his way back into the NHL, and recently signed a multi-year contract to remain the starting goaltender in Vegas.
This is another incredibly important story. Here is a guy who worked his way to the top, then fell all the way to the bottom. He made a decision to get help for his problems and issues, and because of that he was able to find his footing and come back even stronger. Unfortunately, some athletes, and people in general, turn to drugs to deal with stress, anxiety, or other undiagnosed or untreated issues. This is incredibly dangerous and not only threatens your career, but possibly your life. There are unfortunately many stories of athletes whom abuse drugs and end up in prison or dying because of it. Having the courage to seek help and treatment allowed Robin to bounce back in a big way.
Marc-Andre Fleury
Another great example is Robin’s goaltending teammate in Vegas, Marc-Andre Fleury. A former first overall draft pick, Marc-Andre was already a Stanley Cup champion when he suffered through some stretches of inconsistent play during the playoffs that led him to seek help from a sports psychologist.
"Like at first I was a little uneasy about it, it feels like you are crazy or something, but once you go and talk, it's just more tools to help you out. I used to slam my sticks and get really mad after goals and stuff, so I think I have learned even though to me it wasn't a big deal maybe to teammates and people watching, they might not take it the right way. It's something I try to be better at; be calm, breathe, and don't break the stick."
Marc-Andre realized that it wasn’t his physical game that was suffering, but the mental side. Once again, even though this was less than 10 years ago, there was still a stigma placed on publicly disclosing something like that. There are two important takeaways here as well. He talks about how he is perceived on the team, and wanting to be a better teammate. If you’ve read the Fully Equipped Playbook, you know that this is something that I put a lot of emphasis on. Being a great teammate and staying positive makes you the type of player that others want to be around, and will help you integrate and stick around with any team you’re on. The other piece of advice, stay calm and breathe, well I dedicated an entire chapter to it in the Playbook as well!
What should you do if you feel like you’re experiencing mental health issues?
At this point, I hope that you realize that mental health issues are just as real as any other injury, they can impact your performance and your life, and if left untreated they can lead to self defeating and dangerous behavior. Furthermore, everyone from youth athletes to world champions are not immune, and in fact mental health issues are much more prevalent in our society than you might imagine.
If you’re having trouble, know that you’re not alone, you’re not weak, and there is help out there. The first step is admitting this to yourself and reaching out your hand. You can start by talking to someone you trust like a teacher, coach or a parent, or you can even check out https://www.mentalhealth.gov/ or other websites designed to help educate and provide info and resources that can help. Whatever you do, don’t be afraid to take the first step if you feel yourself in need. Help is out there.
