"Student-athletes (22.3%) were at risk for depression, anxiety (12.5%), and low self-esteem (8%)"
"About 35% of elite athletes have mental health concerns. The top issues reported by athletes included feelings of burnout, depression, and anxiety."
The Stigma
What is this stigma that affects athletes worldwide struggle with mental health issues? It’s a complex problem that affects more than just their physical well-being. Often, we see athletes as tough, independent individuals who can handle anything. But this image can create insecurity and pressure to live up to unrealistic expectations. Athletes fear being labeled as weak or unfit for competition, which can prevent them from seeking help for mental health challenges like stress, anxiety, or depression. This stigma makes it difficult for them to openly discuss their struggles, and unfortunately, ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away. It can lead to more serious underlying issues that can impact their performance in sports and beyond.
Many struggling athletes keep their struggles to themselves, which can lead to a variety of mental health issues. When athletes don’t talk about how they’re feeling, it’s hard for their friends and teammates to know what they’re going through. This means that most people don’t get to see the challenges that some athletes face in silence. So, it’s important for us to understand the different types of mental health problems that athletes around the world might be dealing with.
"33% of all college students will experience serious mental health struggles, such as depression, anxiety, or eating disorders. Among this group, around 30% seek help through college resources. However, of college athletes experiencing mental health struggles, only around 10% seek help" Per Duke Study
"50% of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age but most cases are undetected and untreated"
"its okay To not be okay, but its never okay to suffer in silence."
The Many type of Challenges:
With the ongoing silence maintained by many struggling athletes, numerous different issues in mental health can arise for various reasons. When athletes stay silent about how they feel it becomes very difficult for their peers to identify what they are struggling with. This means that most people have no exposure to the challenges that some athletes silently face, which is why it's important for readers to understand all of the types of mental health problems athletes across the world may face.
Balancing School and Athletics
Perfectionism
Fear of failure
Balancing school work with athletics is one of the most common forms of Mental Health that young athletes battle against. Usually these issues occur amongst students who feel immense preasure from their peers, teachers, coaches and families to do everything at a high level. This can cause students to feel overwhelmed by all of the tasks they are burdened with, which can reduce confidence and overall life quality.
Perfectionism is another very common mental health issue that athletes all across the world deal with. When an athlete deals with perfectionism it likely stems from deep levels of insecurity, the belief that you must accomplish something in a perfect manner or else it is a failure. With this mindset comes issues with living up to your expectations, which can cause a significant decrease in overall performance and with it the feeling that you are not good enough.
Fear of failure occurs in athletes who often times have to much pressure put on themselves to succeed in school or athletics. Students who grapple with this challenge likely have trouble preforming when it matters most because they are so scared of making mistakes that they end up stuck in their own head.
Depression
​Depression: Depression plagues roughly 15-35% of all student athletes across the globe, according to many studies across the internet. However, considering the stigma that comes with talking about mental health issues, that percentage is likely a lot higher. The exact definition of depression is hard to pinpoint and the symptoms may vary, which is why it can be so hard for parents and teachers to detect. Often times, moments of depression are some of the worst times of an individual's life. The exact definition of depression is hard to pinpoint and the symptoms may vary, which is why it can be so hard for parents and teachers to detect, but something that I found myself dealing with as a result of depression was the inability to love myself. I felt like I wasn't good enough at basketball to be on the team, I wasn't smart enough to do well in school and I wasn't talented enough to do anything meaningful. Waking up everyday starts to feel impossible and getting through the day is mentally draining; eventually the best part of your day starts to become night when you can sleep and get away from everything. Depression also increases ones desire to constantly be alone and away from everything, for student athletes depression can make them so scared to mess up any game or school work that they run away from it in order to not make a mistake. Doing so can completely ruin ones entire routine, make them start to isolate themselves than officially fall into the grueling cycle that is depression. Depression is the most well known mental health issue amongst teens — for good reason. Self esteem drops down to an all-time low, motivation disappears, overall mood plummets, anxiety increases and sometimes just getting out of bed can feel impossible. Depression can feel like the proverbial “end of the world”.
Social pressure and identity struggle
Social pressure is a very prevalent issue amongst student athletes as often times teens are shaped by their environment. In many sport environments Mental Health is not a topic of discussion, in fact some kids even see it as a sign of weakness as they feel like they need to be immune to any emotions disregarding their sport. Considering that this norm is established in most environments, we unfortunately see a lot of kids disregard their mental health because they think they won't fit in if they tend to it. Feeling the need to fit in with your peers instead of being yourself and talking through any emotional baggage is very unhealthy and sets unrealistic standards for oneself. Sometimes people may even begin to lose their identity and watch the real version of themselves slowly fade away as they attempt to suppress their true self, disregarding all natural feelings in the process.