Mental Health in Profession Sports
by Kristine
Nowadays mental health issues are very common around professional sport athletes. High-pressure environment, publicity, financial problems, lack of time have led to this problem and it is causing a lot of concerns not only for athletes but also coaches, managers, sponsors, and others that are involved in this industry. As we live in the 21st century and everything is captured now most of the athletes don’t want to speak about this topic or even worse- admit having a fight happening in their heads.
First of all, we all are humans and can face this issue but in my opinion, athletes deserve more attention to fighting mental illnesses. People usually think that elite athletes are very strong-minded and that they would never come across this issue. However, they do and society should understand that after all they still are humans like all of us.
Furthermore, as mental health issues come in many different forms it is hard to admit having them. The most common illnesses are depression and anxiety. Many professional athletes are struggling with these. For example, Michael Phelps (depression), Dwayne Johnson (depression), Terry Bradshaw (anxiety) and Suzy Favor Hamilton (bipolar). I’m really impressed by what these people have achieved in their lives and how they have done that while fighting with mental health. I believe that society doesn’t even know that these athletes are diagnosed with mental illnesses.
In fact, there definitely is something wrong with our world. We are probably living in the best time of sports development but we still aren’t doing anything about the most important part of the athlete’s body- their head. There are way too many athletes who have taken their own lives like Rick Rypien, Robert Enke (both depression) just because they couldn’t deal with what was going on in their brain. And that’s how we lose incredibly great sportspeople because the world is way too egoistic to care about well-being.
Nevertheless, as an athlete who doesn’t have mental health problems and I can’t imagine what other athletes with mental wellness problems have to go through. Getting up for early morning practices, eating healthy, doing interviews, representing sponsors, competing and acting like you are a perfect person while your brain keeps pushing your limits seems like the worst life scenario. Personally, I know that it’s extremely hard to be an athlete but being one with depression or anxiety would totally destroy me. I know there are many athletes who keep their health issues as a secret because there is nothing that could be done about it. I really hope that one day they will be able to tell the world their story.
According to British Olympic bronze winner in 400m hurdles race Natasha Danvers, “You’re supposed to be able to handle things. You are in high-pressure situations so you are convinced you should be able to handle those situations yourself, so it is hard to get help, it is admitting you have a weakness.” Basically, Natasha Danvers is saying that athletes are not allowed to show weakness. They are considered as superheroes who aren’t supposed to give up or have problems going on with them. I think that it’s the main reason why many athletes don’t speak up about mental health. It’s disrespectful to judge athletes about their well-being issues while not knowing what are they going through. Society have no empathy nowadays and that’s another issue that should be solved. In my opinion, we shouldn’t judge athletes if we can’t do anything to make these illnesses go away or disappear.
Mental health is a problem that should be more discussed around athletes. They deserve this attention more than anyone else because their life schedule is extremely busy and they also should receive a proper care for mental health issues. This topic hasn’t been very popular because people have been ignoring it for a long time. I hope that one day athletes will be encouraged to speak up about their battles and will be valued for that.
Kristine Strazdite
