Athlete Mental Health Matters at All Levels in Sports

I often hear from athletes who are afraid to come forward with their mental health struggles. While more and more players are stepping up to share their stories of depression, anxiety, etc., there are many more who suffer in silence especially those at higher levels or those who wish to get to that level.

Athletes may feel pressure to live a certain way because they have made it to a particular level and all eyes are on them. They are admired for being on the team, and with that comes a sense that they are somehow supposed to be superhuman, or at least portray that role in public. Athlete or not, challenges happen at any age and we have to learn how to cope with them no matter what stage or season we are in.

One major point of consideration is that each person is an individual with his or her own unique experiences, perspectives, and habits. Therefore, at the base of mental wellness lies experiences, and how we learned to respond to them.

You cannot outplay what is left unhealed externally or internally.

I was reading an article recently about two collegiate basketball players who went public with their mental health struggles.

In it, the author quotes Dr. William Parham, interim associate dean of faculty and a professor in the counseling program at Loyola Marymount University and the director of the Mental Health and Wellness Program of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), as saying,

“The truth is everybody has baggage. There’s really only two questions on the table: how many pieces of luggage do you have and what are you carrying inside each bag?”

This is why you’ll often hear me say that mental health has layers that is unique to each individual. Like the baggage that Dr. Parham alludes to, I think of these experiences as layers because they are often intertwined one on top of another, some heavier than others, each teaching us lessons and emotional habits. These layers become a part of our bodies and our subconscious, which when then operate from on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, we have to take the respect and time to uncover whatever blocks that may be hindering us from these layers.

Before I geek out too much on this (or perhaps I already did), the point is that trauma and difficulties can happen at any age and any athletic level. Sometimes, they are brand new and sometimes they are being hidden by the individual. It also means that how we handle new challenges can be influenced by how we learned to handle old challenges.

In that same article, WSU basketball player Alterique Gilbert was quoted as saying,

“I think a lot of people need to understand and realize that everybody don’t grow up with the same life experiences or the same trauma that people may experience at a younger age. I just think it should be brought to the light more because some people experience different things and don’t learn how to cope with it until later on in their life.”

As Gilbert went on to say in the article, “We all need more self-care, more self-love.”

A fact of life is that it changes constantly. The goal here, regardless of your age or status, is to become more self-aware by becoming more comfortable with self-love and less comfortable with self-judgment. And, when your head and your heart are right, you can only be more competitive.

Keys to the game:

• Difficult challenges and unhealed trauma are potential obstacles at any age. Instead of judging yourself on where you should be, give yourself permission to work through whatever it is you need to work through right now for a better tomorrow.
• Everyone has parts of themselves that they can improve upon. If you don’t think you do, then maybe start there. Starve the ego, feed the soul.
• Being an athlete doesn’t make you exempt from past or current challenges. You’re still human.
• You can be a tough competitor and demonstrate self-love. They can absolutely co-exist.
• Instead of focusing on being broken or masking pain, focus on healing with the purpose of growth.

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