We often hear about student-athlete mental health after it’s too late. So many athletes have secret struggles that nobody knows about. There is a stigma that athletes have no right to complain about their craft when most of them are getting free education for “playing a game.”
A recent event involving a young woman named Katie Meyer’s is shining a new light on an issue that is far from new. Katie was found dead in her dorm room and it was later ruled a suicide. She was a four-year starting goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team at Stanford University. Her parents were quoted a few days later saying they do not want to blame athletics for what happened, but they believe it definitely had a large impact.
Student-athlete mental health is too often looked over and not validated. Similar to so many other pressing issues in our world today, it is devastating that we start to talk about these issues after something irreversible happens.
The stigma that needs to change is the way that people view mental health in athletics. When an athlete suffers a career ending injury, we show sympathy and the athletes accept it. Athletes are embarrassed to talk about their mental health and rarely reach out for help. There should be no difference between the two. It is not too late to start a culture shift around mental health within student athletes.
There are many jobs that carry high caliber stress and being a student-athlete is not the only circumstance of this mental health issue. It is harder to talk about mental health in sports though because people believe that college athletes have the biggest privilege of playing their prospective sports. Although that is true in more ways than one, it is not all glamorous. Depression and anxiety is easily covered up by fake smiles and grit for the competitiveness of the sport. Depression is hidden by the “go get it” mentality that is often praised. There is a confusing line between motivating and pushing the athletes over the edge. Sport programs and organizations need to start paying better attention to that fine line.
Athletes are seen to the public as tough and are commonly told to “suck it up.” One of the most known phrases from coaches is telling their athletes to be “mentally tough.” If athletes are not strong enough, they train harder in the gym or in the weightroom. Why is it that if they are not mentally strong enough, we shame them rather than giving them resources to help? Mental health can start to be more accepted as soon as we normalize vulnerability.
Seeing the sports psychologist should be treated the same way an athlete would see their athletic trainer for a physical injury. An athlete struggling with their mental health should not feel like they have to hide their struggles. Society has to buy in on treating student athletes as people first- then the student- then the athlete.