Image from Hackensack Meriden Health: A track athlete laying on the track feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
By Krystal Torres ’25
Picture an athlete in your life that struggles with substance abuse and mental health issues. Now, picture seeing this person whom you deeply care for come to school tired everyday with dark bags under their eyes, seeing them fall behind in school, watching them abuse drugs and alcohol, and watching this person slowly losing motivation to do anything because they’re overwhelmed by their sport. Many athletes struggle with substance abuse because of mental health issues. Substance abuse correlates with mental health because those who struggle with their mental health typically resort to using substances as a coping mechanism.
Athletes who abuse these substances tend to negatively impact their athletic performance, personal lives, and their academic performance. Mental health issues are caused by athletes feeling overwhelmed by academics and physical strain. Many athletes overwork themselves because of high expectations they’re given. By lowering expectations, athletes would benefit tremendously.
Athletes should be offered resources for mental health support as well. The majority of athletes who struggle with substance abuse and poor mental health are highschool and college athletes. This is because responsibilities become greater and they start to become more independent. College and highschool athletes say they use/abuse substances because it helps them deal with stress and it gives them a sense of adrenaline. An article written by the NCAA states, “Student-athletes, compared with other students on campus, report higher rates of heavy episodic drinking” (Hainline). A study conducted by Harvard University found that students from ages 18-24 have mental health disorders that are related to alcohol and tobacco use which then leads to depression, anxiety disorders, suicide, and many more.
Athletes who abuse these substance have an increased risk of academic failure, increased risk of sexual assault, interpersonal violence, etc. This is because when someone is intoxicated, their thinking is impaired. For example, if someone has being drinking alcohol they tend to struggle when asked to walk in a straight line or complete simple tasks. Many athletes often experience fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and cardiac abnormalities.
Most of the time athletes aren’t offered mental help or stress management strategies, however, the few times they’re offered it they tend to neglect it to prioritize athletic and academic obligations. There are 5 main reasons an athletes performance is affected: stress, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and trauma.
Stress is one of the top three mental health concerns doctors have for student athletes. Even though exercise is considered a good thing, athletes have shown it is one of the biggest reasons for their stress because they feel burnt out. A big reason that athletes don’t take their stress seriously is because they feel that they’d be behind in their school work. Stress also increases muscle tension and induced coordination changes that can affect athletic performance. They can also get stress fractures due to increased bone mineral and density malnutrition which can greatly increase the risk of injury for athletes (DeStefano and Grusonik).
Many athletes have been diagnosed with anxiety. They begin to feel most anxious before their games, meets, competitions, ect. Anxiety can affect an athletes attentional system meaning in can affect their memory, flexibility, organization, impulse, and planning and their stimulus process which is their 5 senses (DeStefano and Grusonik). In a 2019 study, researchers found that about 1/3 of male student-athletes and 1/2 of female student-athletes reported being impacted by anxiety in the last 12 months.
Depression is more common in elite athletes than in less elite athletes. This is because the pressure is greater and the expectations set for them are higher. Depression can affect an athletes nutrition and weight which could lead into something greater like an eating disorder. Athletes who suffer from depression tend to lose interest in the sport, the motivation to improve, suffer from physical aches, pains, and cramps. If the depression gets worse suicidal ideation happens. In 2019, a study was conducted on college students who suffer from depression and 12% of those who participated reported that they “seriously considered suicide” sometime in the last 12 months (DeStefano and Grusonik).
There aren’t many reports of athletes suffering with eating disorders since coaches and trainers encourage good eating habits and they get weighed frequently. Eating disorders are more common in college athletes then in high school athletes. Athletes who suffer from an eating disorder usually don’t seek help because they don’t know they have one or they’re afraid to speak up. Death is one of the biggest risks eating disorders pose for athletes. Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental health disorder. Many people with this disorder die because from starvation but others die of suicide. Eating disorders reduce overall psychological well-being and have significant physical health effects that damage the athlete’s ability to perform well in their sport (DeStefano and Grusonik).
PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) is common in athletes. They could’ve got this from situations that have happened during childhood, during college, athletic environments, and many more. For example, some childhood traumas being: domestic violence, parental substance abuse and incarceration, child abuse and neglect. Sexual assault and domestic abuse are other types of traumas athletes can have. This affects athletes because anything such as a loud noises can trigger them. This can then lead to intense sweating and a rapid heartbeat which could change the way they perform.
Some of the best athlete’s in the world struggle with mental health. For example, A.J brown, a player for the Tennessee Titans struggled with mental health. More specifically, he struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts. In an article written on Brown it says, “I had no more hope for better days, and everything was just going wrong for me,” Brown said in the video. “ I didn’t know, really didn’t take into consideration what depression really was. I always just brushed it off. That’s how I grew up. I just brushed off my feelings, and it got the best of me,” (Vogt and Gillihan). In this press conference, Brown talks about how men’s mental health is overlooked. He says, “Us as men, to be honest, our feelings aren’t too much cared about,”. Brown’s advice to others was to get things off their chest. Brown says this because one of the best things he did was talking to his roommate and teammate about his feelings. He says to seek help and that you’re never “too tough to talk to someone”.
Chris Herren, a former basketball player, struggled with substance abuse and mental health. In a speech Herren did, he describes how substance abuse ruined his life and how it lead him to become suicidal. Herren says that a he had overdosed 4 times and the last time was when he has handed into law enforcement and put into handcuffs. The police officer let him go but asked him to put himself in a treatment center and he agreed. That same day he thought to himself the only way to get better and make peoples lives better was to kill himself. Herren said, “ I was walking out of the hospital and I said to myself, “ If I’m gonna do one thing right with my life, I’m gonna walk to my friends house, I’m gonna grab his gun, I’m gonna stick it in my mouth and I’m going to blow my head off. Today I will kill myself. Today I will finally end this nightmare. Not for me, for my poor family.” (“Chris Herren Speaking on His Addiction Recovery Story | PeaceLove”). Herren’s mental health was so bad that he thought of suicide as the solution.
If you did know anyone who is in need of help, there are many ways to help them. If an athlete has a superstition they follow, encouraging them to do it before any big event is very beneficial for them (Miele). One of the biggest and most effective ways to help them could just be something as simple as listening to them and letting them speak. Feeling support from your friends and family is one of the best feelings for those who are suffering with mental health and substance abuse issues. There are many warning signs and symptoms to look out for. Some of examples of these signs and symptoms are, engaging in risk taking activities, being secretive, tolerance to drugs or referencing it, etc. Some withdrawal symptoms are vomiting, insomnia, depression, headaches, sweating, and trembling (“How To Help An Athlete With Addiction – Tranquil Shores”).
Athletes are some of the most vulnerable group of individuals there are to mental health and substance abuse. Checking up on them is always important. Just because some of them are always happy and cheerful, doesn’t mean they don’t suffer from mental health and substance abuse issue. Lowering standards for athletes
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