What exactly is Mental Health?
Most of us know about the horrifying truth that is the consequences of improper mental health. Suicide, depression, constant anxiety, and self-harm are just some of the many affects improper mental health has caused. But what exactly is mental health, and just how impactful is it on our day-today life?
Well, to give some background information, I am a teenage athlete, age 15, who currently plays only baseball. I was never introduced to the sport until I was eight, and ever since, I've been in love with it. I currently play with a travel baseball team in Decatur, and I'm having a blast talking and playing with new teammates! That's not to say I've had tough situations during the sport.
When I was eleven years old, COVID-19 had just hit and my team's tournament schedule, which lasted from February through May, had been canceled. Not to mention, school was basically out as well. This really made me depressed, as all I could do was stay home and play video games while I wait for COVID-19 to gradually slow down. At the same time, I was hitting a massive growth spurt. where I went from 5'0 foot in February to 5'7 in the middle of April. Practices started to kick back up in June, and on the first practice, I severely sprained both my knees. We went to see a orthopedist about the issue, and he came out saying that I have Osgood Schlatter, a disease that is caused by the overuse condition or injury of the knee, creating a painful bump and swelling on the shinbone below it. Just like that, I could not attend the rescheduled tournaments left for our team in June and July. Even more, I had to wear a plastic boot for a minimum of a month and a half, and I could not do any physical activity until then. Today, I still feel horrible about that season, regardless of things I could and couldn't control.
But back to the topic...Mental Health, by definition, is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being. But to me, mental health is the emotional state of someone; how they're feeling or what emotions make them act a certain way. In athletes, mental health can be a very sensitive subject to talk about. They deal with a variety of obstacles, whether it be overtraining, lack of confidence, and/or doubting their skills or talents while also feeling like a fraud (imposter syndrome). For instance, big leaguer Will Brennan had dealt with Imposter Syndrome when he got called up the big leagues' in 2019 right before playoffs started for the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians). In an article interviewing him about his mental health, he mentions "I may have looked calm on the outside, but on the inside my heart was racing". The article goes on to mention how others deal with the syndrome, usually by talking with professionals, meditating, and focusing on only one thing at a time to keep themselves calm.
However, teenage athletes have it the worst. Tackled with the raging hormones, mood swings, and changes in both physicality and mental approach, teenage athletes suffer from a much more variety of mental struggles, including some mentioned earlier. These struggles can be depression, severe anxiety, imposter syndrome, bipolar disorder, and more. Furthermore, teenage athletes, due to puberty and large growth spurts, often deal worse with injuries, including growth pains, sprains, strains, breaks, and tears.
Just to show how much teenage athletes have mental struggles, I surveyed teenage athletes across Riverwood International Charter School and the state of Georgia, asking them whether they deal with mental struggles or not. Here are the results:
With the results shown, it is safe to say that about seven out of every ten teenage athletes (or 70% of teenage athletes) have their own mental struggles. When polling those teenage athletes who deal with mental struggles, I asked some if they could tell me what they specifically struggle with. You would expect depression, anxiety, and a lack of confidence, which was most, but many said that they some of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), Overthinking, and the "Yips", or sudden twitches in the body caused by severe performance anxiety. But what other problems do athletes have? What exactly do these mental struggles do to an athlete?