- Part 2: What can teams and leagues do to make a positive impact on athletes’ mental health?
Members of the psychology and psychiatry community who have never met Jarren Duran shared their hopes for the Red Sox outfielder this week.
Wednesday, documentary.”Clubhouse: Year with the Red Sox” Released on Netflix. In the fourth episode, Duran, who had previously spoken about mental health struggles, admitted to having previously attempted suicide in 2022.
“I was sitting in my room, I had a rifle, I had a bullet, I pulled the trigger and clicked on the gun, but nothing happened,” Duran said. “Until today, I don’t think God really knew why it wasn’t going out, so I didn’t let my life take away. But I say it “It’s okay, I might have to be here” so after the gun didn’t come out, I said, “Do you want to be here, or don’t you want to be here?”
Speaking about that admission this week, Duran said it hopes it will help other people, especially him, in the same way he is fighting the same emotional and mental health issues as him.
His revelation was national news. In addition to pushing Duran’s courage forward, doctors hoped that what he said would spark important conversations about the athlete’s mental health. His admission created an organic opportunity to raise awareness.
“It’s big to see him come out and say this for a few reasons. First off, over the last 20 years, we’ve actually seen suicide rates doubled between athletes and student-athletes,” Dr. Mena Millhom said. “We are very, very proactive about not missing physical injuries in so many ways, but we need to be much more proactive about not missing injuries in terms of mental health.”
Millhom, a sports psychiatrist and assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University, Athlete for hope.
Founded in 2006 by a collection of former athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Warrick Dan, Miaham, Jackie Joyner Kelsey, Jeff Gordon, Andrea Gassi and Alonzo Morning, Athlete for Hope was created to support athletes and former professional athletes.
In addition to charity and philanthropy, it has become a place where athletes can find valuable mental health resources.
“How do you help athletes understand their mental health and how can they help their teams better understand how they support their athletes?” Milhom said.
Dr. Tim Willens is the chief of child and adolescent psychology at Mass General Hospital. He is a former medical director of MGH’s sports psychology program and treats NFL players. He thought the children would particularly benefit from Duran’s revelation.
“Anytime, a role model, a person watching on TV, someone on that level opens up about something that resonates with you. In this case, depression, it really fights over it, reaching out to help, talking to others, talking to others about it, and seeing a more normal human experience, in contrast to something that is inherently flawed.”
I’m still fighting with awareness
It is important to promote awareness and expose misconceptions.
Even in the last decade, consciousness has come a long way. Elite athletes in many sports since then –Serena Williams, Kevin Love, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Brandon Marshall – revealed their personal struggle.
Duran’s revelation rekindled the conversation.
The challenges for doctors, especially those who work in athletics, have overcome years of misconceptions and pushed the spirit of a particular sport.
Athletes may battle mental health issues and, in some cases, more likely than anyone else.
Dr. Eugene Hong is the chief medical officer of Clemson Athletics and the chief physician at Musc Health, South Carolina. He worked as a team physician on a university team for over 25 years.
In 2015, he and two other doctors published a paper called “Current Sports Medicine Reports” entitled “Athlete Depression.” This article and other things like that helped expose the idea that athletes are less likely to suffer from mental health issues because they exercised.
“There’s a lot more awareness than I started,” Hong said.
“It’s not true, but there’s this perception that it still exists to this day,” he continued. “That’s one of the big parts of the value of things like Jarren Duran and Netflix documentaries.”
In addition to other living factors that could affect mental health, athlete struggles were more common, and this was clearly portrayed in Duran’s case. When an athlete fails, people see it and often scrutinize it. Duran spoke extensively about these challenges in a Netflix documentary. Being an athlete is so closely tied to your identity, the criticism isn’t just about how they played, but who they are.
“Many athletes at different levels, college, certainly professional levels, are surrounded by their identity as athletes,” Hong said.
So when a player is not playing well or injured, it affects how the player perceives himself and how people believe that they will perceive them.
Resources to address these issues vary from team to team to league. Some teams have psychiatrists and psychologists as part of their staff. Others often provide a directory through the player’s association – athletes can access when they need care.
Highly functional, quiet pain
For a team, value goes beyond helping someone through challenging times. There are clear and specific benefits. Athletes’ performance may improve due to mental health.
“Athletes are highly functional and prone to quiet suffering. According to the data we see, up to 40% of athletes may experience serious anxiety symptoms that they learn to be at work,” Milhom said. “It feels like jitter and performance pressure in the game. That’s what it is. But if you unleash that a bit, it could be that up to one athlete is dealing with something that we can treat.”
However, even players who have not experienced a medical condition can benefit from mental health professionals.
“Even if you don’t deal with anything diagnostic, 100% of people in the field or in the court are looking for strategies and more effective ways to sleep. “These peak performance life skills apply to everyone. You don’t need to get an insomnia diagnosis to learn more about how to optimize your sleep. You don’t need to need an anxiety diagnosis to learn better ways to control your heart rate in difficult moments.”
Hong said that by drawing out the link between improving mental health and improving performance, it will help convince skeptical coaches about the value of psychiatrists and psychologists to engage in an organization.
“If these mental health conditions are not diagnosed, they can affect performance,” he said. “In the end, athletes want as much performance as possible on the field and court, so why aren’t they paying more attention to this, because coaches want it, so if that makes sense, it’s a kind of missed opportunity.
Players who are properly addressing mental health issues are less likely to resort to substance abuse as a countermeasure. Athletes are uniquely vulnerable to substance problems as they are often prescribed painkillers to manage their pain and return to behavior.
Injury can cause not only physical pain but also identity-related mental health issues when your ability to play is compromised. The temptation to abuse painkillers to address both issues is a concern.
Countermeasures of domestic violence among athletes can be reduced when athletes tackle the root causes of their frustration and anger in a healthier way.
“This could be a game changer. When you leave something without an address, it’s something that’s been built and it’s stacked one after another.
Things are improving. Society’s collective understanding of mental health issues has expanded. Sports follows a similar path.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Hong said. “Like the sports medicine documentation, we hope to move a little faster in terms of providing mental health care.”
Mirhom was encouraged by progress and hoped it would continue.
“On the other hand, this is far better than it was 10 years ago because the conversation wasn’t really happening. Professional athletes, baseball, etc. We didn’t talk about mental health or mental injury at all. Progress is good. Advocacy is there. There’s conversation.
“But for some teams, it’s kind of a checkbox. It’s not important enough to make a difference. “Hey, we do it too. The extent to which the team puts the resources behind it, when you’re caring about the whole person, you want to do it well as a person.
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If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, you are not alone.
Hotline across the Samaritan State: Phone or Text: 1-877-870-hope (4673)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-Talk (8255) If you’re a veteran, press #1
TREVOR Helpline: 866-4-U-TREVOR (488-7386) Support designed for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth and young adults
