Athlete mental health has gained attention in recent years, thanks to elite athletes sharing their experiences openly, followed by increased media attention, and research efforts. Yet, there still seem to be misconceptions regarding athlete mental health and sport psychology in people's minds.
Therefore, in this article, we try to highlight the nature of these topics and what athletes, and their support systems should at the minimum be aware of.
Sport psychology does not equal athlete mental health
One common misconception that arises is that sport psychology equals with dealing with athletes' mental health issues. That an athlete only needs to work with a sport psychology professional if they are facing issues. This is, of course, also a wider misconception, not affecting only sport psychology and reflects the attention given to illness-model of psychology.
However, sport psychology as a field stretches beyond athlete mental health. In fact, especially in Europe, sport psychology professionals are more often trained and focused on the performance enhancement side of the field. This is because training and education in sport psychology often focus primarily on performance enhancement. Following this, many professionals lack the legal qualifications to address mental health issues, and overall performance-related topics tend to more in-demand than mental health ones.
So, in reality the main focus of sport psychology is usually not athlete mental health. In order to sport psychology professional to work with mental health issues, in most cases they need further training that leads to licensure in mental health field. While sport psychologists often can work with less severe issues, a license to offer psychotherapy is often needed to work fully with mental health issues.
(Note: This is a broad overview of Europe where the requirements and education can differ between countries, always check the local requirements).
In sum, sport psychology at its foundation focuses on performance enhancement through psychological skills training, psychological support, and provides sport psychology expertise on other psychosocial areas within sport and sporting organizations.
Therefore, sport psychology does not equal athlete mental health but often mental health is an additional piece of sport psychology that requires advanced training and licensure.
Mental health is more complex than absence of issues
The last paragraph focused on mental health issues. This is because the advanced training and licensure focuses on this part of mental health. However, contemporary view is more complex than that. Defining mental health only through the absence of symptoms has fallen out of favor due to its simplistic view of health (i.e., absence of symptoms).
Mental health is nowadays often defined as "a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community" (World Health Organization).
When viewed like this, mental health begins to touch us all, being at the core of our performance, and something we all could pay attention to, cultivate, and safeguard. Mental health allows us to be who we are, do what we want to, and strive for success as we define it.
This aspect of mental health is also referred as "positive mental health", which tries to distinguish it from an overall view of mental health, which includes mental health issues as well. This positive mental health can be thought as the desirable state of mental health, but we can also experience low levels of this positive mental health without that state necessarily being an illness. We might feel overwhelmed, might not be at our best, or not be able to do the things we wish. Sometimes this is called languishing, which comes from dual-continuum model of mental health.
On the other hand, mental health issues are often characterized as significant, prolonged disturbance to a person's thoughts, feelings, or behavior that causes difficulties in daily functioning (WHO). These are always diagnosed by a trained mental health professional, usually a doctor (e.g., Finland) or sometimes by a psychologist in some countries (e.g., United States).
Mental health issues thus are more severe than just feelings of overwhelm or sadness, which can be normal parts of life. They also make just one part of overall mental health, even though they are best known and often when experienced they have a major influence on a person.
In sum, overall mental health is a complete state of mental well-being, where an individual is thriving. In addition to the absence of mental health issues, an individual experiences desirable levels of positive mental health. Therefore, when we speak about mental health, it is not about mental health issues but rather about this robust resource in our lives.
Athlete mental health comprises a part of the performance level
As we mentioned, mental health is a robust resource in our lives, and that means it is a robust resource in our performance as well.
Athletic performance at the elite level demands a lot of training, preparation, and commitment. It demands a lot physically, socially, and psychologically. All of this needs to come together on the competition day.
Athletes need to be sharp, energized, and locked in. They need to have the right arousal levels and mindset that they individually require to perform at the top of their ability. Good overall health aids in achieving this state.
With elite sports, health might be taken for granted. While elite athletes are physically fit, go through treatment and recovery on a weekly basis, and consider things like sleep and nutrition to maximize the recovery, progress, and performance, elite sports are not actually kind to athletes' bodies (nor minds) and would not necessarily be considered as "healthy".
Here we come back to the notion that health is more than the absence of illness. While elite athletes are oftentimes very good at reaching new levels when it comes to their performance, they might be less aware of how to improve their health unless it is done through the performance lens. But as we mentioned, health lies beneath performance. Healthy people are often at better standings to perform better, especially when it comes to physical competition.
We humans are complete beings, everything is connected. our gut health might be the reason for our mood states, quality of sleep can affect our physical strength, and psychological stress can lead to a number of physical illnesses. All these can then affect the performance. Therefore, health matters in performance.
This includes mental health. It is part of our overall health and not its own separate entity, nor it exists in a vacuum.
Specifically, mental health issues often come with some common symptoms that can impact physical performance directly. Mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, or psychological distress can, for example, make people more fatigue, decline their cognitive functions, increase heart rate and tension, reduce motivation, and disturbe sleep patterns.
If an athlete is more fatigued, sleeps poorly, and lacks motivation, they might not be able to train fully or perform up to their ability. If an athlete has cognitive impairments, that is for example poorer focus, memory, or reaction times, their athletic ability will be impaired as well because all of these processes heighten the physical performance. Increased heart rate and muscle tension overload the body for nothing and make performance more difficult in many sports.
On the contrary positive mental health can have positive impact on physical performance. Athletes with strong mental health are more likely to sleep well, manage stress, and maintain healthy routines, which all contribute to their performance levels. Strong mental health often equips them with more resources to face difficulties, setbacks, and adversity to recover quicker from poor performances, losses, or injuries. Finally, we can mention that strong mental health is linked with more energy, motivation, and focus to name a few outcomes that can impact performance.
In sum, mental health issues can have a big impact on performance, but the impact and symptoms are unique to each situation, thus similar performance decline described is not always the case. Additionally, strong mental health is valuable to elite athletes proactively and should be cultivated as a part of their training.
Athlete mental health is everyone's responsibility, but a professional should be responsible
Mental health demands the attention and effort of everyone involved in athlete's life, from coaches and trainers to family and friends. Creating an environment where the high challenge and pressure of elite sports meets as high support is crucial as are open conversations, psychological development, and recognition of signs of mental distress. With these in place, athletes are not left alone, they arre informed and encouraged to develop their psychological skills and have less barriers for help-seeking if needed.
Yet, while this builds a strong foundation and environment, it is a good practice to have a sport psychology professional responsible for the bigger picture. This is a theme that needs more attention than just having a staff member responsible for it as a side task. Having a professional in place makes sport psychology a normal part of the environment, lowering stigma and barrier for help-seeking as the athletes are used to the professional and they have pre-existing knowledge of what to do.
A professional not only brings specialized skills and knowledge but also provides confidentiality and objectivity. By having a dedicated professional, athletes have a point-of-contact to offer the right support while setting appropriate boundaries for those involved in the athlete’s life.
To wrap-up, athlete mental health and sport psychology are complex, multifaceted areas that play a crucial role in both performance and well-being. Understanding that mental health is more than just the absence of issues, recognizing its impact on performance, and understanding the role of professional support are all essential steps toward building a more balanced and sustainable elite sports environment.