Athletes spend several hours training each week. For the they do whatever it takes for them to be the best. Sometimes they train so hard and so long that it is no longer benefiting them in their training, they are just creating problems for the future.

Many athletes develop mental health problems. Mental Health includes psychological, emotional, and social well-being. Mental health is important as it affects how people think, feel, and act. People’s mental health help determine how they interact with others, how they handle stress and how they make choices. Athletes need to have this under control if they want to preform to the best of their ability. Just being an athlete can put stress on them so it is important that they are able to handle it. When mental health affects choices, it is not good. Choices as an athlete cold be life or death so it is always important to have good mental health so the athletes can make the best choices (MentalHealth.gov).

Athletes can develop mental health problems from over training, and life experiences but they are more likely to occur to people if they have a family history of mental health problems. It’s important that coaches and trainer know family history as this lets them know if the athlete is more susceptible to having problems occur (MentalHealth.gov).

Most athletes do not want to ask for help if they are experiencing a problem as they fear asking for help will make them look weak. Coaches, trainers, teammates, and parents should be on the lookout of signs of mental health problems along with encouraging athletes if they are experiencing problems they need to speak up and get help. There are some early warning signs of problems developing. So, signs are, but are not limited to, “Eating or sleeping too much or too little, Pulling away from people and usual activities…Felling numb or like nothing matters…Yelling or fighting with family and friends…Inability to perform daily tasks like taking care of your kids or getting to work or school” (MentalHealth.gov). There are many different mental health problems that a person could have. A few types of mental health problems include anxiety disorders, behavioral disorders, eating disorders, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychotic disorder, suicidal behavior, post-traumatic stress disorder. These problems can be serious if they go untreated.

Many universities have trainers and counselors for the athletes because they know things are bound to happen. They work close with the coaches and athletes, to make sure everyone is doing okay. They need to make sure that everyone is educated and willing to help.

The University of Michigan was able to work with some students in order to share their stories. Michigan’s plan was to show that it is okay to have problems. They made multiple of them showing that it happens to a lot of people. Each one of them tells the story of different problems that a person could have. 

Stacy Ervin, student athlete from The University of Michigan tells his story of his journey through mild depression. And encourages people to focus on their mental strength. Right before he started his freshman year his mom passed away. He realized that he was spending way too much time alone. He started hanging out with his teammates more and making new friends outside of school.

Stacy noticed that he needed help, so he changed his lifestyle. He tried to explain that mental health is just as important as physical heath and also mental strength is just as important as physical health. He also tries to get people to understand the point, “you don’t have to be sick in order to get better” (Ervin). Athletes training their mental health will help them be a better athlete and person. Some teams have a trainer specifically for mental strength as sometimes training can be hard and your mind is telling you, you cannot do something, the mental training can give you just that one extra push. Mental training will also keep your mind on training healthier and athletes will be less likely to develop mental illnesses.

Another video tells the story of a swimmer, as she was growing up she wanted to go to the Olympics but she never made it. As a swimmer, everything is based on numbers, the time it takes, the number of laps. Soon this swimmer started to base everything in her life about numbers. She started counting her calories and going crazy about the numbers on the scale when she weighted herself. She eventually realized she had a problem after friends started to wonder. At first when she realized she need to reach out she feared judgment as she felt struggling was a sign of weakness. Eventually she went to talk to a counselor on campus and she learned ways to cope with her problems and she learned that it is okay to struggle. When she went to her coach to tell him what was going on he found great strength in her to be able to come to him.

This swimmer wanted to be the best she could be but through training and everything going on in her life. She thought that the size of her body was not good enough. Obsessing over her weight and calories led her into developing an eating disorder. Eating disorders can be very serious for athletes because if they are not eating proper amounts before or after workouts they are not going to have enough energy to make it through a productive work out safely. University of Michigan coach, Carol Hutchins states, “don’t suffer in silence, out doors are always open” (Hutchins). With this coach want to help athletes to the best of their abilities as they do not want to lose their athletes mentally or physically.

Currently mental health is not part of the NCAAs mandate. NCAA understands that mental health is a problem but they just cannot agree on what to make the guidelines. “Concussions get more attention because of the media the NFL, lawsuits and congress,” Wilfert said. All of this should not have to be done in order to fix something we know is working. Athletes should be able to get more help but it should not be achieved by more and more of them harming themselves. Fox Sports states “students-athletes themselves need to take better advantage of the on-campus sport available” (foxsports). Yes, this should happen but athletes fear weakness. Athletes might feel embarrassed as they might feel like they are the only one going through problems. If counselors were able to set up appointments will a student-athletes, the students might be more willing to talk and since everyone has to go they might not fell as singled out when it comes time to speak up about their problems. 

Some major attention was brought to NCAA when University of Pennsylvania runner, Madison Holleran committed suicide, and it was linked ack to mental health. Women are two times as likely to develop depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Women athletes believe that eating disorders are the largest problem. “More women have eating disorders then breast cancer, yet every major women’s and men’s sport has a pink ribbon campaign while mental health issues go unnoticed” (foxsports). According to the National Eating Disorders Association, 12% of the population has serious mental health issues. Eating disorders and suicide are second and third leading causes of death in student athletes.

While the NCAA does not really have a specific mandate yet, they are aware that there are problems occurring. Margot Putukian wrote about how being injured affects mental health. It is an “excerpt from the Sport Science Institutes guide to understanding and supporting student-athlete mental wellness” (NCAA). When athletes get injured it leads them to be emotional as they probably have to take some time off from their sport. Some emotional response could be anger, lack of motivation, sadness, isolation, changes in appetite, and irritation. If the return to play decision has to come into effect the emotions are typically going to be higher as they are now deciding the fate of the player or athlete.

Mental health is not only an issue for athletes while they are training. Emma Vickers puts it as “sports stars will die twice” (Vickers). The first time being when they retire. This is true as many athletes struggle when they retire from their sport. Retirement can be caused by injury, aging out, or even the athlete just knowing it is time to be done. Athletes can suffer from depression when they are done with their sport. As they have so much time and they might not know what to do with all of it that was being used for training. Often this depression comes from not knowing what to do with their life as they feel lost in the world. So, retired athletes need help too, these retired athletes could be helped by putting a group together giving them some support and friends going through the same thing. It also gives them time to find themselves, as they will no longer be just defined as an athlete.

Athletes often suffer from “Tunnel Vision Syndrome,” this is when athletes spend way too much time thinking about their competition, workouts, results, and training. When this occurs, they have no thought of what they are going to do next in their life, if something were to happen. Coaches, parents, and other people who are working with the athletes can recognize this when it is happening. They need to speak up to the athletes because they do not see that it is happening as they are so focused on the sport. It is not good if athletes are in this mind set as they could get injured in a heartbeat. Obviously, they do not need to be worried every second aboutt being injured but they sometimes should think about and do things outside of their sport, for say, if they do end up having to move on from their sport.

In the British Journal of Psychiatry, Lynette Hughes and Gerard Leavey explain physical illness. They explain that physical activity is considered a health benefit, it is the extreme physical activity where it begins to be unhealthy and harmful. By any means athletes should not quit their sports because “physical inactivity has been reported as the most prevalent chronic disease risk factor” (Hughes, Leavey). They explain some more risk factors of intense activity at the elite level. It can lead to “overtraining, injury, burnout, increased risk for sudden cardiac death and other non-cardiovascular conditions such as respiratory systems, iron deficiency, increased incidence of allergies, immunological suppression and infection, gastrointestinal symptoms, diabetes mellitus and eating disorders” (Hughes, Leavey). This shows that problems with elite athletes are not only mental problems the other problems also need to be watched as they would make the athletes stop their training as that could lead to mental issues.

Something that helps athletes not have so much stress when training is by increasing the communication. Communication is key when it comes to training. Athletes need to communicate with their coaches as if they are injured they need to tell the coaches or if something is going on in their life it might be good to tell the coaches. If an athlete has more than one coach, then they need to communicate with each other. 

Communicate is key as it will help prevent the athletes from being overworked. For example, in gymnastics, too much impact is not good for the gymnast. So, its key that the vault and floor coaches communicate so athletes are not overworking their bodies on both events. Being over worked can lead to unnecessary stress and possibly even injury. Communication can help prevent this.

So, athletes are going to struggle at some time in their career, weather it is with an injury that leads to mental health struggle or if it is something going on in their life that causes it. Athletes perform better if they have a strong mental wellbeing, but they need the support from coaches, teammates, trainers, and parents because it is not easy to go through alone.
