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student athletes are facing a mental health crisis

a disturbing wave of college athlete suicides over the last few months is bringing attention to the intense pressure put on students.

student athletes are facing a mental health crisis
encouragement from coaches and other athletic leaders can make a big difference in getting student athletes to actually seek help for mental illness, experts say. getty
mental health among professional, elite athletes is a topic that’s only recently become part of the mainstream health conversation. trailblazers like simone biles and naomi osaka have faced backlash for stepping away from certain parts of competitions due to the fragility of their mental health.

“we have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do,” biles said when she stepped down from the 2020 summer olympics last year.

but there’s an emerging mental health crisis among another group of athletes: college students.

the last few months have seen a disturbing rise of student athlete suicides. the most recent is arlana miller, a 19-year-old cheerleader at southern university and a&m college, a historically black school in louisiana. the school didn’t confirm her cause of death, but in a since-removed instagram post, miller said she planned to kill herself, huffpost reported. she had struggled with mental illness for years, and specifically mentioned the pandemic, difficulty with classes, and a torn acl ligament as contributors to her depression.

sarah shulze, a 21-year-old university of wisconsin runner, died by suicide in april. “sarah took her own life,” her family said in a statement provided to ap. “balancing athletics, academics and the demands of everyday life overwhelmed her in a single, desperate moment.”

katie meyer, 22, a stanford university soccer player, died by suicide in march. she was happy and successful, but she also a perfectionist and the pressure to succeed could be all-consuming, katie’s mother gina meyer said on the today show.

“there’s so much pressure i think on athletes, especially at that high level balancing academics and a high competitive environment,” gina said. “and there is anxiety and there is stress to be perfect, to be the best, to be number one.’

and the cause of death wasn’t confirmed for lauren bernett, a 20-year-old softball player at james madison university who died in april, but following her death, the university directed other students to resources for people suffering mental health crises.

“you really never know what someone is going through,” one of bernett’s team mates tweeted following her death, according to cnn.

intense pressure, public scrutiny

college can be stressful for anyone: there’s a lot of pressure to succeed. students are also faced with the prospect of choosing a life path and finding a job in an historically difficult economy. however, student athletes face the additional burden of balancing both classes and sports. and they’re in a high pressure and extremely competitive environment that’s also high profile: if they flub a goal, for instance, that’s a much more public failure than flunking a test.

“student-athletes on campuses are hit with more pressure to perform and excel” than the average student, sports psychologist and university of mississippi counsellor josie nicholson told the washington post. they live such hectic schedules with so many expectations. … there’s not really much time to stop and process anything.”

some former student athletes have spoken up about the pressures they faced. harry miller, a former football player for ohio state, announced in march that he was medically retiring from athletics for his own mental health. he had come close to killing himself last year, he wrote in a statement on twitter.

“at the time, i would rather be dead than a coward,” miller said. “a person like me, who supposedly has the entire world in front of them, can be fully prepared to give up the entire world. this is not an issue reserved for the far and away. it is in our homes. it is in our conversations. it is in the people we love.”

he also wrote that he was grateful for the support of his coach, who put in an infrastructure to help athletes in his situation.

elijah wade, a former football player for ucla, has also opened up about the his experience as a student athlete. wade medically retired in spring 2020 because an off-season injury he said was mishandled by his university administration led to physical and emotional trauma, the la times reported.

but following his retirement, wade decided to run for the undergraduate student association council, aiming to advocate for the physical and emotional health of student athletes.

in the early days of the pandemic, student athletes were pressured to keep playing, wade said. there were even discussions of students losing scholarships if they choose not to play. “you’re essentially forcing student-athletes to return and risk their lives without compensation,” he told the times.

he was disappointed he couldn’t keep playing, but is glad he’s able to help other athletes, wade told the paper.

“i felt that i had a voice, that i’m a person that was willing to take everything that came with this position and put myself in the crossfire, so that students could have someone that had their best interest at heart.”

mental health crises seem to be intensifying among student athletes: “the professional consensus is that the incidence of anxiety and depression among scholastic athletes has increased over the past 10 to 15 years,” sports psychologist marshall mintz, who works with teenagers, told the atlantic in 2019. the physically demanding schedules of athletics can lead to sleep deprivation, which exacerbated depression and anxiety. intense training can also mean less time to spend with supportive friends, or doing other activities.

university is also a time when students “stop talking about who they are and emphasize what they do,” nicholson told the washington post. “their world becomes about taking that dream and living up to those expectations.” that single-mindedness can leave students totally adrift when an injury prevents them from playing or competing — as with arlana miller’s torn acl.

what can be done to help athletes with mental health

at the very least, there need to be mental health supports available for student athletes — and they need to actually be accessible.

athletes need to be “hearing from coaches, everybody, what the resources are and encouraging them to use those resources, while genuinely checking in with each other,” nicholson said.

encouragement from coaches and other athletic leaders can make a big difference in getting students to actually seek help for mental illness, experts say.

“working to de-stigmatize seeking help within athletics culture is also a critical step,” sports psychologist julie amato told the washington post. “too often we hear there were no signs — which tells me the person was likely struggling internally but did not know how to talk about it, or what to do about it.”

coaches, too, can learn to advocate for their athletes. jolee paden, a high-school cross-country coach in washington, d.c., told the atlantic that she took an eight-hour course on how to actually recognize signs of distress in her students and start talking to them about seeking help. “i walked away with some actual tools for responding rather than far-off theories,” paden told the magazine.

if you’re thinking about suicide or are worried about a friend or loved one, contact the canada suicide prevention service at 1.833.456.4566 toll free or connect via text at 45645, from 4 p.m. to midnight et.

maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com
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