By Jamison Ness
To the naked eye, it is easy to assume that college athletes are living the dream. From “running the school”, to NIL deals, and picking classes first, it may be hard to understand where any struggle would come in. That being said, the high stress environment may lead to many mental health struggles. Anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and other issues are among the most discussed struggles that college athletes have been diagnosed with in the last few years. With recent mental health struggles in athletics, it is important to understand where these athletes are coming from. By removing the stigma around the conversations of athletes' mental health, lives are being saved.
The statistics
In 2022, 4 collegiate athletes committed suicide
From 2002 to 2022, 128 NCAA athletes took their own lives
Among USA college athletes, suicide is the second most common cause of death (following accidents)
Contrary to a general population percentage of 5.0%, 15.6% to 21.0% of college athletes have depression
29.1% of female collegiate athletes report having “overwhelming anxiety” daily
Up to 84.0% of collegiate athletes have engaged in disordered eating.
These statistics are simply daunting. The mental health of these collegiate athletes is struggling immensely. It may leave people asking, what may we do to help? It all starts with breaking the stigma
Breaking The Stigma Around Athlete Mental Health
Essentially, breaking the stigma means to make a topic that is viewed as “hush hush” or not talked about enough into a topic that people may talk about freely and openly. This is so important because the sad, permanent decisions that student athletes are making could possibly be prevented if they felt like they could reach out for help.The mental health conditions that these athletes experience combined with the stigma said conditions within the athletics world may make athletes feel like they should be embarrassed or ashamed of these struggles. Dealing with anxiety, depression, or eating disorders is already extremely difficult for them. On top of that, if they feel like it is a taboo subject that they may not talk about, these negative experiences and emotions may pile up. The piling up of this negativity is what leads to these tragic decisions. This is why breaking the stigma is so important. To have a chance to save these athletes, we need to make sure that they feel safe to express their experiences. In order to save these athletes, starting at the root by breaking the stigma around athlete mental health, and opening up to talk about these struggles is crucial and pivotal.
Although these mental health issues may not be completely prevented, there are undoubtedly things that may help college athletes through these issues. I surveyed 6 college athletes with one question: “What do you want the general public to know about athlete mental health struggles?”. I wanted to ask this question because breaking down the barrier of public to student athletes is important for the student athlete to be able to feel supported and understood. In breaking down this barrier, athletes may be seen as more human, and therefore feel more comfortable to reach out for help in times of need. These were the responses I recorded
“Being a college athlete has pros and cons. Sometimes, the pros may make us feel ungrateful when we are struggling mentally”.
“The stress of being a collegiate athlete may spiral very fast, that is why it is essential to watch for personality changes”.
“We fear being viewed as weak, which is the biggest reason we do not reach out”.
“Having your body changed for the type of athlete you are may be very difficult to deal with and leads to eating disorders. Commenting on athletes' bodies may seem harmless but it is not”.
“We fake being happy because we believe we should be because of how awesome the experience is supposed to feel ''.
“ Our time as college athletes has positives and negatives, but the negatives may feel never ending”.
“Being comfortable to talk about our mental health struggles may stop mental health issues from spiraling to the extreme”.
Essentially, this is what the college athletes I interviewed want us to know. In order to break the stigma and this barrier between student athletes and others, these conversations are vital. Although these mental health problems are not fully preventable, it is important to recognize steps that may be taken to minimize the extreme effects that these problems may have and to help student athletes not feel alone.
References
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-suicides-college-student-athletes-years.html
https://kindbridge.com/mental-health/common-mental-health-issues-in-college-student-athletes/