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Emergency: Mental Health in student-athletes

This paper focuses on the causes of depression among student-athletes and measures to overcome them.  The term 'depression' is considerably popular among college students. However, the term ‘Sports depression’ is unknown amongst the people, due to- one that the population suffering from sports depression are athletes and another the stigma attached to it. Generally, when discussing sports, names like Messi, Bolt, Mohd Ali pop up in our mind. Nevertheless, names like Robert Enke, a German goalkeeper who committed suicide after suffering from depression for six years, Olympic medallist Kelly Holmes who reported her self-harming tendencies or English cricketer Marcus Trescothick who was suspended from international cricket due to his depression (The Guardian) are just a few examples, which needs to be brought under the focus of public attention. Sports is acknowledged to make an athlete mentally strong and increase perseverance. It inculcates discipline and trains athletes to become resilient. This paper will focus on two major factors causing depression among student-athletes are 1. Social Isolation and stress 2. Fear of Injury and identity crisis

Social Isolation and stress
A research was conducted among student-athletes from ages 18-25 by National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to study depressive symptoms between athletes and non-athletes. The study revealed that female athletes were at a higher risk of getting depression as compared to male athletes. In the self-reported test, females scored high on measures of social anxiety and depressive symptom than male athletes and non-athletes. (Storch, 2005) Results show that as athletes have less social support compared to non-athletes, they are at a higher risk in developing depressive symptoms. Nevertheless, self-reported data does have its limitations. There are athletes who tend not to report their health issues because they need to appear mentally tough. The self-reported nature of the research means that women aren’t necessarily more depressed, they’re just more willing to report their symptoms. Having a social network and team support are two factors that most strongly protect college athletes from developing depression.
Along with isolation, student-athletes deal with increased stress due to academic pressure, sports performance. Hence, they tend to rely on alcohol abuse and show symptoms of depression and social anxiety. (Miller, Miller, Verhegge, Linville, & Pumariega, 200). Higher stress and poor athletic performance are significantly associated with depression. Conceptually, failing or poor performance results in a lack of external reinforcement, increases negative self-talk, and which makes them feel helpless or not good enough, which are consistent with depression symptoms. (Thomas Trojian)

Fear of Injury among student-athlete
It is stressed that exercise is good for mental and physical health. Then, the question which arises is why do student-athletes suffer from depression? The most likely answer to this question is the risk of injuries. When suffering from injury the athlete is restricted from carrying out daily activities, which give them free time to think, negative self talk or low self-esteem will furture lead to depression and anxiety. All types of sports from football, hockey, rugby to gymnastics are activities which are prone to injuries. Student-athletes who have suffered an injury are more anxious and depressed, as they cannot perform nor take an active part in practice.This could explain the 37% prevalence rate of anxiety symptoms in college student-athletes. (Rice et al., 2016) For athletes, their sports tend to be a major part of their identity. When they are restricted from performing or have to terminate their career, they feel a major loss of identity which makes cause depression and self-harm tendencies.  (Storch,2005)
Now that we know athletes also suffer from depression just like non-athletes do, awareness must be spread to curb the conventional stereotypes that are attached while describing an athlete and help them seek help. coaches are often ill-equipped to recognize and deal with mental health issues. Hence initiative to work with mental health practitioners who could train them to look for signs of depression can be helpful. My focus was majorly on student-athletes as an intervention at a younger age will go a long way.  Student-athletes should be encouraged comfortably to seek support and the stigma regarding mental health should be removed.

Citation
Storch, E. A., Storch, J. B., Killiany, E. M., & Roberti, J. W. (2005). Self-Reported Psychopathology in Athletes: A Comparison of Intercollegiate Student-Athletes and Non-Athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 28(1), 86-98.
Wolanin A, Gross M, Hong E. Depression in athletes: prevalence and risk factors. Curr. Sports Med. Rep. 2015; 14: 56–60.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mental-game/201811/combating-depression-and-anxiety-in-sports
Gill, E. (2008). Mental Health in College Athletics: It's Time for Social Work to Get in the Game. Social Work, 53(1), 85-88. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23721192
Maniar, S., Chamberlain, R., & Moore, N. (2005, November 7). Suicide is a real risk for student-athletes. Retrieved on January 24,2006, from http:// wwwl.ncaa.org/membership/ed outreach/health safety/suicide.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2018/oct/10/its-ok-to-not-be-ok-what-top-athletes-have-said-about-mental-health-in-sport-video

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