How mental health mediates sports performance
How mental health mediates sports performance
The worlds of professional, elite, and high-performance athletics can impose difficult conditions on all who are involved or work within them. Like other high-pressure work and racing environments, professional performance sports can create a great deal of stress and mental strain not only for athletes, but for virtually all members of the sports ecosystem.
The performance-oriented nature of sports can make this true not only for professional athletes, but also for athletes, coaches, and individuals at nearly every level or area of the sport.
Because of this, mental health is becoming a frequent concern in sporting contexts around the world. Understanding the interplay between mental health and sports performance is a vital prerequisite for keeping not only athletes, but all sports professionals and enthusiasts healthy and functioning optimally in what can often be a difficult and challenging landscape. demanding.
The history of psychology and the practice of mental health in sport
Mental health awareness and best practice has entered mainstream sport relatively recently. Despite History of PsychologyhhellogramY As an official academic field of study that has spanned over 100 years, mental health awareness has become a bigger topic of conversation in many sports communities in the last decade alone.
Publicized campaigns and debates about mental health within the world of sport (for example, gymnast Simone Biles’ outspoken defense of mental health after the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games) have traditionally met with pushback and criticism, and even now are sometimes the subject of heated debates or differences of opinion. However, the sports ecosystem is becoming more receptive and proactive in addressing and supporting mental health issues effectively.
What was once a topic absent from discussion, training, program design, franchise policy and public discourse is now being prioritized and integrated into sports programming ranging from elite professional organizations to the very youngest levels. grassroots community sport. This bodes incredibly well for the sporting context as a whole, and in particular for athletes who have historically borne the brunt of insufficient mental health awareness and care.
How mental health affects the world of sport
As mentioned above, one of the main reasons why the world of sport should pay close attention to mental health needs is due to its highly performance-oriented and competitive nature. Especially in professional and high-performance sports environments, the expectations and demands of athletes are high, leaving little room for error. Just as exertion or high training demands cause strain on the physical body, psychologically demanding and demanding environments create large amounts of mental stress.
When an athlete experiences these stressors at high levels and/or for prolonged periods of time, they can eventually experience mental illness if those stressors are not adequately addressed. In extreme cases, these cases of mental illness can become irreversible. Similarly, high levels of stress or mental pressure can occur for any type of position or role in sports organizations. Even non-athletes who work in sports contexts can experience the same types of mental health stress (and eventually illness) if that stress is not properly managed or alleviated.
One of the most common causes of mental strain within sport is, unsurprisingly, tied to individual or team performance expectations. For example, a high-performance team sports program, such as a college-level varsity basketball team, can often experience significant collective pressure for the entirety of each basketball season (6-7 months of the year) due to issues individual, team, coach, administration, campus and community expectations regarding their performance and win-loss record.
Professional athletes experience similar or more intense levels of stress when their employment and livelihood depend on their continued professional performance. Pre-Olympic athletes (and their coaches and teams) feel the sustained stress of not knowing if their training regimens will result in meeting their goals and possibly competing in the Olympic Games. For each of these cases and many more, stress and mental strain is a regular, significant, and often sustained experience.
Medications for mental health and athletes
Athletes and other sports professionals within the sporting context who have experienced mental health problems or who are being treated for mental health problems face a unique challenge that others do not have to consider. Medications are prescribed as a standard treatment protocol for many of today’s mental health conditions. However, for high-performance athletes, the ingestion of certain substances could be grounds for expulsion or exclusion from the competition.
It is extremely important that medical professionals working with athletes or sports professionals consult carefully with the athlete or expert officials before prwritesYotake any medication to treat mental health problems or conditions. This is imperative so as not to accidentally prescribe a substance or medication that could render the athlete ineligible for competition.
Tips for Maintaining Strong Mental Health as an Athlete or Sports Professional
Whether you’re a high-performance athlete or sports professional, it’s important to make sure you’re aware of how mental health issues manifest so you can identify any risks and proactively treat them for yourself, your staff, teammates, or companions. athletes. Here are some tips to keep in mind:
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Don’t be intimidated by other athletes, coaches, or staff who put you down for mental health issues. If you are concerned about your mental health, seek help immediately.
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Conversely, don’t contribute to a culture that treats mental health issues with silence, name calling, and isolation. This is extremely damaging and dangerous. Encourage those around you to be open about their struggles, and help create safe spaces to talk about difficult issues like mental health.
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Identify activities, hobbies, and tools that help you feel better or less stressed when you’re having a hard day. Keep them handy and be sure to use them when you feel stress building up. Honestly check in with yourself at regular intervals to identify when you’re feeling more stressed than usual, and use this “mental first aid kit” to help reduce mental health stress.
We hope you enjoyed the article “How Mental Health Mediates Sports Performance”. Does participating in sport benefit your mental health? Let us know!
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