Mental Health
Mental health IS health.
Mental health and well-being are essential to being able to perform at one’s best within career, academics, relationships, and sport.2Participation in college sports supports positive mental health in many ways. However, a sport experience can also result in a variety of stressors. Athletes experience the same stressors and mental health challenges as their non-athlete peers, with the added stress of internal and external performance pressure, athletic injury, and time commitments associated with academics and collegiate athletics. The pressure associated with student-athletes’ daily routine can create intense emotional responses, and the unique time demands of sport can result in imbalances in other areas of life. It is no surprise that these pressures can affect a student-athlete's mental health.1
Unfortunately in many athletic settings, a stigma persists that mental health should be something that athletes can "push through," or that seeking care is a "sign of weakness” or lack of “mental toughness” which is a common barrier to seeking help.2 Mental health is health, and seeking mental health support is no less important than seeking your athletic trainer for physical pain.
Each student-athlete is a unique individual. Seeking assistance to help navigate their unique stressors can be beneficial to overall well-being.
You are not alone.
• About 1/3 of male student-athletes and 1/2 of female student-athletes reported being impacted by anxiety in the last 12 months.2• 21% of male student-athletes and 28% of female student-athletes reported that they "felt depressed" in the last 12 months.2
• 78% of racial/ethnic minority student-athletes reported a mental health need within the last year (2020) but used services at a rate less than 11% rate.4
• 21% of all U.S adults experience mental illness in a given year.3
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References
1. Brown, G. T. (Ed.). (2014, October). Mind, Body and Sport Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete Mental Wellness. An introduction to Mind, Body and Sport. Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/introduction-mind-body-and-sport.
2. Egan, K. (2019). Supporting mental health and well-being among student-athletes. Clinical Sports Medicine, 38, 537-544. doi: 10.1016/j.csm.2019.05.003
3. Mental health by the numbers. NAMI. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2021, from https://nami.org/mhstats.
4. Ballesteros, J., & Tran, A. G. T. T. (2020). Under the face mask: Racial-ethnic minority student-athletes and mental health use. Journal of American College Health, 68(2), 169–175. doi:10.1080/07448481.2018.1536663