Prioritizing Mental Health in Sports
Naomi Osaka, Michael Phelps, and Gracie Gold have shown us that mental health needs to be put first
A few weeks ago, Naomi Osaka made headlines for her decision to drop out of the French Open. The highest-paid female athlete in the world had decided it was time to put her mental health first and take a break from the media attention and pressures of the sports world. Though her decision has made the most news, she isn’t the first athlete to step back from sports and prioritize mental health struggles. Athletes around the world have been making this decision over the last decade as mental health becomes an increasingly discussed issue.
Mental Health Disorders in Athletes
For athletes, certain mental health issues are prevalent for the highly competitive and physically straining environment they are usually in. They include anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and substance abuse - which is also frequently combined with the other disorders as a coping mechanism.
Of these disorders, anxiety disorders are the most common in athletes. The high pressures of playing competitive sports can cause panic disorders, performance anxiety, and phobic anxiety - which in sports is usually an irrational fear of things like pain, injuries, or other things that could lower one’s athletic performance.
In both the general population and athletes, mood disorders, which include depression and bipolar disorder, are fairly common. Around 15-20% of the general population will suffer from a bout of depression in their lives and a number of these individuals are athletes. Certain personality traits and disorders associated with those traits are also common in athletes, including extraversion, perfectionism, narcissism, and maladaptive coping (which can be linked to substance abuse). ADHD, an attention disorder that prevents sustained focus and concentration, is the most common personality disorder in athletes.
These disorders can all result in increased substance abuse as a coping mechanism or even as a completely separate disorder. In a study by the World Anti-Doping Agency, around 30% of world championship athletes in 2011 admitted to having used banned substances in the past, though substance abuse can also occur with legal substances such as alcohol and marijuana (in some parts of the world). The most commonly used substances by athletes are in fact “alcohol, marijuana, opiates, stimulants (such as Adderall), caffeine, tobacco and performance enhancers”. Substance abuse is also more frequent in male athletes than in female athletes.
Lastly, eating disorders and body dysmorphia are frequent in athletes that compete in sports where body weight and appearance matter significantly for performance or the participation is categorized by weight classes. These sports include gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, and cross country. Eating disorders are more common in girls as weight loss or gain methods while body dysmorphia is more common in males since they are typically more preoccupied with muscle development and large physical size maintenance for their sports.
Now, here is some insight on some notable athletes who have decided to step away from sports for mental health reasons, making headlines and simultaneously bringing awareness to mental health issues.
Naomi Osaka
This young Japanese tennis player is ranked number 2 in the world and was thrown into the media spotlight in 2018 after beating Serena Williams. Her fame, however, has come as a mixed blessing for her introverted self as she has struggled with “long bouts of depression” and anxiety since then. During the French Open this year, she was opting not to do media interviews to preserve her mental health but was fined $15,000 and threatened with suspension by tennis officials for doing so. She then publicly decided to leave the tournament this year in order to put her mental health first, earning praise from athletes around the world for doing so.
In addition to typical pressures athletes face, being a biracial athlete (black + Japanese) has made her more prone to racial hatred in the sports world. She is very outspoken about racial injustices and carries the burden of representing multiple minority communities in her sport. As Dan Kilvington from the Talking Race Podcast says, "The very fact that Black, Asian and minoritized ethnic people are more likely to suffer from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety has been ignored." Osaka’s decision to leave the tournament helps destigmatize mental health in minority communities and helps bring serious awareness to these issues as well.
Michael Phelps
Known as the most decorated Olympian of all time, Michael Phelps, an American swimmer, has been extremely outspoken about his struggles with depression. He started having bouts of depression after the 2004 Olympics and every subsequent Olympics. This led to numerous driving under the influence charges and he began to self-medicate with drugs. His turning point was the period after the 2012 Olympics when he had a “hard fall” that left him suicidal and ready to quit his sport. He then recognized that he needed professional help and started receiving treatment for his depression.
He retired briefly in 2012 to receive treatment but rejoined the sport two years later only to retire again in 2016. He has worked with numerous organizations to address mental health in sports and recently shared his personal struggles and experiences with treatment on the HBO Documentary “The Weight of Gold”. Phelps has acknowledged the effect that his constant discussion of mental illness has had on bringing awareness to this issue, “The fact that there are so many celebrities or so many people standing up and talking about the struggles that they have – I think that’s a way for us to really break down that stigma”.
Gracie Gold
Gracie Gold is an American figure skater who rose to fame after winning bronze at the 2014 Olympics in a team event. The fierce competition in the sport and high self-expectations she placed on herself took a toll on her eventually and by 2017 she was struggling with an eating disorder, suicidal thoughts, depression, and anxiety. Her performance was falling and she even ended up screaming at several judges after receiving critical feedback.
She then ended up taking a 3-year break from sports to receive treatment for her mental health and has been open about her struggles with the public. She acknowledges that it wasn’t the sport itself that caused her mental illness but rather the way she handled the pressure and stress of being an Olympic athlete. She also emphasizes how mental health illnesses at their most basic level are medical conditions that need to be treated as such. “An alteration of brain chemistry can happen to anyone,” she said in one interview, addressing the need to normalize mental health care and discussions.
Though these are some of the most prominent names now associated with mental health advocacy, numerous other athletes have also been speaking out about their own mental health and supporting others who do choose to speak out. Additionally, mental health in sports needs to be discussed on not just the professional level but also in schools and colleges. Destigmatizing mental health means starting from the ground up - athletes should be receiving help from the start and shouldn’t have to wait until they are Olympians to acknowledge their mental health struggles.
Ending note: For those struggling with mental health or substance abuse crises in America please call the 24/7 free SAMHSA hotline at 1-800-662-4357. In the case of an emergency please call 911 or your local emergency number.
This is an excellent post! Mental health is definitely overlooked in athletes nowadays. I think it's very brave for these people to talk about what they're struggling with and hope it can help others too.
Mental health is such a difficult subject to talk about. It’s really inspiring to see athletes coming forward and talking about it! Anxiety is crippling at times which is awful. I wish more people would open up! Xo
Elle - ellegracedeveson.com