Blog Post #4
Austin T. Johnson
Blog Post #4
Dr. Jenkins
04/27/2022
The Influence of Mental Health and Substance Abuse on Student-Athletes
With the increase of NCAA athletes competing every year, athletes are faced with a tremendous amount of pressure to better their performance each season. This pressure is felt not only on the field or court but also in the classroom. Coaches, teachers, and friends of athletes can confirm this occurrence. The lack of mental health support for students is leading them to substance abuse and the issue is that both of these problems need to be brought to attention. Consequently, this means that student-athletes are the most susceptible to having mental health issues. For instance, athletes have a greater risk of having substance abuse, social anxiety, eating disorders, or mental health disorder than regular students because some feel the need to take illegal performance enhancers or modify their bodies to be deemed successful.
Off the field, in my free time, I enjoy watching broadcast sports. Watching each of the teams play against one another and seeing each of the professional player matchups is entertaining for me. Citing a real-world occurrence of this issue is professional athletes coming out and talking about their mental health difficulties. Most recently, Kevin Love, the center for the Cleveland Cavaliers has come out and talked about sitting out games because of mental health problems. Another example was in the recent summer Olympics when Simone Biles went to the games but was unable to perform in all the events because of her mental health not being stable. In recent years student-athletes have been more open about the mental side of things and it helps non-athletes and athletes understand what it takes to compete at every level of play. According to a medical article published by Dove Medical Press, athletes may turn to substances to cope with numerous stressors, including pressure to perform, injuries, physical pain, and retirement from a life of sport (which happens much earlier than retirement from most other careers). Additionally, athletes may be significantly less likely to receive treatment for underlying mental illnesses such as depression. Athletes receive comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation for physical injuries, but this is less often the case for mental illness because professionals view mental illness as a sign of weakness. (Reardon and Creado 2014). In recent years, athletes are opening up about mental health issues. This is helping get rid of the stigma of mental health as a weakness in the professional realm.
One perspective on this issue is my own, the stigma of young athletes seeing mental health as a weakness is changing because of professional athletes speaking out about their struggles. As a student-athlete myself, I have to deal with a lot of stress. An example of my average day here at Birmingham Southern College during lacrosse season is, a long day of classes that begins at 8:00 am sharp. Then after my 8:00 am and 9:30 am classes, have a small window of time to tackle my responsibilities for the day. Afterward, I go to film and practice which can last around 4 hours. Once this is all complete I decompress by going to my apartment and playing games or cracking open a nice cold Coca-Cola. Whenever I deal with stress outside of lacrosse I like to go to the field and shoot or throw on the wall by myself and get time to think. When I get in my head while playing lacrosse, I think of what I executed during practice that week, or I remind myself that it was only one play that had gone bad and it does not define my overall level of play.
A second perspective on this issue is from a coach's perspective. Coaches do not typically address mental health as for some individual athletes it “opens up a can of worms''. In their mind exposing one's mental weakness is a signal of overall weakness. This is a stigma within the sports industry that must be broken. Coaches always talk about strengthening the mind and to never giving up, however sometimes they need to shift the discussion to the mentality of how it builds mental toughness, understanding and improving on weaknesses. Coaches need to heighten their awareness because if student-athletes are unwell enough to compete how will their programs continue to run. During my time here at BSC, our coach was kind enough to take us to do something fun mid-season like paintball or taking us out to hibachi allowing everyone to relax off the field. After our longer seasons, our coach gave us a break with a light week of practices and a fun weekend where we got hibachi and paintball. Keeping a balance between being hard on an athlete and understanding their needs outside of practice is key. Coaches only want athletes to perform their best. Sometimes they know they need to push athletes to play better. Not saying that mental health awareness needs to turn around 180° overnight, but every effort towards improvement is necessary.
One solution to help address this issue is campus awareness. Students can hand out buttons or stickers that show student-athletes mental health awareness solidarity throughout schools to spread the word about it. Another idea is to hold student-athletes mental health week, this is a week directly focused on giving out treats or easy week of school work to help them out. A second solution to address this issue is mandating the school or the NCAA to give teams a resource of mental health counseling. I do not think there is one great big solution to mental health and addiction for student-athletes as of right now, but I believe there can be a better understanding of the issue that will help. If we can get rid of the stigma around mental health and encourage athletes to open up there will be fewer indices of substance abuse and mentally unwell student-athletes. Another idea I have to address this issue is if the NCAA were to mandate that all competing sports teams have licensed mental health counselors come to the schools to discuss all topics related to substance abuse and mental illness. Schools can be more equipped to handle mental problems by adding support groups that athletes need to attend or bringing in mental health specialists to speak to the teams.
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Citation
Reardon, Claudia, and Creado, Shane. “Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation.” National Library of Medicine, Dove Medical Press, 14 Aug. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140700/