Mental Health Among Collegiate Athletes
One of the biggest/most quieted problems that student athletes face is mental health. Up until recently mental health was a bit of a taboo if you will. But with new studies coming out like one that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, mental health among college athletes is being brought to the forefront. In fact a group of researches at Drexel University and Kean University completed a study that showed 1 in 4 college athletes show signs of depression. They surveyed 465 athletes competing in Division I sports over the course of 3 years, and the study came to show that 30% of female athletes showed symptoms of depression where as 18% of male showed these same symptoms. That means on my team of about 12 girls right now at least 4 of us are struggling with depression, that’s not okay! Because in reality I know for a fact that about half of my team if not ¾ of my team struggles with mental health problems due to being a collegiate athlete on a daily basis.
As you can see the study shows that many student athletes are experiencing signs of depression, however keep in mind these are only athletes that were willing to come forward and admit that they are experiencing symptoms of depression.
In January of 2016 the NCAA released a new set of guidelines to better help collegiate intuitions combat this problem.
Mental Health problems amongst student athletes are due to multiple different aspects. These aspects or “direct stressors” as the NCAA likes to call them, and range from time demands, performance pressures, and coaching styles. Injuries can also add to the direct stressors. Having an injuring can mentally destroy a student athlete. This is because student athletes depending on their injuring can be out for months, and not being able to play your sport, or even be physically active as an athlete is extremely deteriorating on your psyche.
Not only are athletes faced with all of these different stressors, but having a mental health problem is not something that is easily discussed being an athlete. Showing any sort of weakness as an athlete is absolutely out of the question. If you show weakness you are looked at as a wussie, you can be ostracized, made fun of, and as crazy as this may sound, being called “weak” as an athlete is one of the most offensive things.
Hmm… I wonder why athletes don’t come out right and say, “Hi, I am depressed, or experiencing extreme anxiety.”
We don’t want to be looked at as anything but strong athletic people, and having a mental health problem shows a sign of weakness.
“Mental Toughness” is something that has been constantly drilled into our brains as athletes practically from day one. That being said we are taught to believe that we are in a way immune to mental health issues, and that we are sort of like super humans being able to juggle school, our sport, and a social life.
Mental Health is a serious issue, and just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Many athletes struggle with mental health, and many are afraid to come foreword to admit they have this problem. This is a critical issue that needs addressing the way physical injuries are.
As student athletes we have trainers that attend to our physical injuries, and I believe we need someone that is there to attend to our mental injuries as well. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and let alone doesn’t matter as much as physical injuries.
Physical injuries can take a player out of practice because it is something that is easily seen and evaluated. Mental injuries on the other hand are ignored and when it comes to practice, you just gotta “leave it outside of the gym” “don’t bring outside problems into practice” “only focus on your game.”
They should be treated the exact same, and this idea of “mental toughness” needs to be addressed in a way that doesn’t harm student athletes. Being mentally tough is good to an extent, but when it comes in the way of a person’s health, that’s when it crosses the line.
I’ve personally experiences problems with my mental health, and it made juggling practice, school, and everything else in my life, not much of a walk in the park. All I wanted to do was lie in bed and cry all day. I have had multiple mental breakdowns, keeping me from focusing in class let alone being able to produce papers in on time, or perform well in practice. But as a student-athlete I have not had anyone to help me cope/deal with this problem, I have sort of had to struggle on my own. I just had to pull my shit together and be “mentally tough,” because I am an athlete and that’s just what I have been programmed to do.
Mental Health is extremely important, and with the developments of new studies I hope that one-day mental health will be treated just the same as physical health, because it too matters despite it not being something that can be physically seen.
