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This blog post is part of Healthy Mind, Happy Life.
October 10e was World Mental Health Day, a day to educate yourself and others about mental health, raise awareness and be an advocate and voice for mental health. There is a huge stigma surrounding mental health that makes people afraid to talk about it. This damaging stigma prevents people from speaking out and asking for help, and the stigma can be especially harsh on athletes.
Athletes are admired by their friends, family and strangers. They are seen to be strong, capable and dedicated – a little mental fight could not hurt or bring them down. This is not the case.
Speaking of mental health, BVU women’s soccer player Tobi Birch said, “If you’re not mentally healthy you won’t be physically. I think being an athlete is good and bad. Track and field distracts you and can be an escape route. But it can also have stressors that create limited time for other things. When asked if she was comfortable sharing how athletics played a role in her mental health, she added: for myself and I needed a break from the people who always came to me about negatives. I took the stress of the team on me.
She added, “It’s important to take the time to think about all aspects of life, it’s important to know what you’re doing right and wrong. It doesn’t matter how much people tell you what you’re doing right, unless you can hold yourself accountable. “
Multi-athlete athletics , Maximum powers, was also available to comment the role of mental health on athletes, declaring, “I think COVID has really raised awareness about mental health, it’s not perfect but it’s improving.”
He continued, “Mental health plays an important role in athletes because how you perform as an athlete is a mind game. He said COVID has helped him recognize that sometimes he bites more than he can take. “At one point there was a burnout with me, I lost a lot of motivation and I didn’t practice as well. By trying new events it developed a new love for the sport and a new motivation that I was missing. ”
Understand that everyone’s mental health is different. Everyone is affected in one way or another. Track and field can be a great way to cope with how you feel, but sometimes it can be too much.
What you say matters. Your words matter, good and bad. You don’t know what the person sitting next to you is going through, so be nice. Help out when you can. Remember, you are not alone. There are resources on campus, off campus and online that are available to you.
Click here to read the story of a former BVU athlete on the Healthy Mind, Happy Life blog.
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