Navigating the Dual Pressure: Mental and Physical Wellness for Student-Athletes
Our lives as high school, college, and university students come with pressure from our teachers as well as family, but that doesn’t even reflect half of what some juggle with when they are also taking the road of developing as athletes.
Stress appears when we start to manage our calendars to make sure we can deliver our best in regards to academic responsibilities, training schedules, and even competitions (which we know are sometimes out-of-town and that disrupts everything our calendar worked for).
If we don’t give our mental health the importance, care, and time it requires just like it’s done with your physical training sessions, we’ll start to feel burnout and fail at performing our best on the field or in the classroom.
What can happen next?
Your mind starts to sense more symptoms of anxiety and stress due to performance pressure, and a new fear of letting your teammates, coaches, and family down on many angles. If you don’t ask for help on how to address this, the symptoms can lead to a stage of isolation or depression that could even result in an injury.
At Bree Sutton therapy we use different tools to help you regain strength and balance for your mental health, but one of them is the most effective and recently used in the sports field for its impact on athlete's performance and overall health: brainspotting.
When one suffers an injury, we tend to blame ourselves for taking the wrong step or for the team that pushed us towards this situation. In reality, it’s not someone’s fault, but just a trauma we grab on to, until we find our way back on the field. Instead of falling into this sense of loss or uncertainty, brainspotting can help you support your mental health while you are recovering from your temporary physical condition.
What can you additionally use to support your mental health?
Ask for help, seek support.
It might seem extremely simple or very embarrassing to ask for help but as humans, we need to talk out our feelings and struggles to feel stronger and face the new challenges in life. By talking with your coach, family, or a mental health professional, they will have possibly gone through a similar situation or know a trick or two on how to lessen the weight and cope with it better.
As a parent or coach, you must make sure your athlete is surrounded by supportive coaches and an open environment in which they don’t feel bullied by their teammates. There are some organizations that also offer counseling services, workshops, or resources for all athletes and students to support their mental health.
There is still a stigma
Although the situation has improved, talking about mental health is still a stigma and we need to keep promoting and enhancing its importance in our overall wellness.
There are many resources available, you just need the right one that will give your situation and yourself the results you are looking for. Not all kinds of therapies or coping techniques work for everyone, we all follow a different path and must find the solution that works best.
My last piece for you is regarding resources and calming our nervous system when we feel a spike of anxiety or stress. This playlist of biolateral sounds literally reduces your mind speed allowing you to focus on your current activities but most importantly in bringing peace and calmness to your body. The mind and body are intertwined, the more you give your mind health support, the more results you’ll see with your body health and performance.