Beyond the games: Athletes and Depression

 

After years of dedication to being the best in a career played out in the media spotlight, adapting to retirement can be an extreme challenge for the toughest of athletes. The sudden transition to a more mundane life poses a sea-change for body and mind. Unfortunately, we are not yet in a culture which readily embraces – much less understands – the problems retirement can cause for sportstars. It is no wonder that former athletes are so reluctant to disclose mental health issues when, in the 21st century, the media deems it acceptable to publicly ridicule and stigmatise mental ill-health. The outrage the shameful publicity prompted from mental health charities and readers alike was fully justified.

Athletes by nature are mentally tough, and are perceived to be mentally tougher, fitter and healthier than others – and this makes it harder for them to approach someone for help, especially if they are in the public eye. They can experience loss in many ways – loss of form, loss of speed, or through injury or retirement. The severity of the psychological response to that is often misunderstood by other sportspeople, and to a certain extent by the athletes themselves.

Retired boxer, Ricky Hatton, has been open about his battles with depression. The former two-weight world champion initially retired following a brutal defeat at the hands of Manny Pacquiao in May 2009. He fell into substance abuse and depression over a three-year period marred by the torment of feeling he had left the ring with “unfinished business”. Hatton’s defeat in his subsequent comeback fight convinced him that he had reached the end of the road. While initially “heartbroken”, an emotional Hatton told a post-match press conference, “I needed answers and I found them.” His sincerity strongly suggested that not finding those answers would have been far more painful than the wounds on his bruised face.

 

To begin to address the issue, we must look at some of its causes.

Retirement brings with it the perception of a loss of identity. While the identity of the average individual is multi-faceted, for a professional athlete identity is singular, concentrated and therefore inherently fragile.

World-renowned peak performance coach, Bill Cole, has described how a ‘profound sense of loss’ is a constant theme in athletes struggling to put their first career to bed. Cole revealed that when participation in sport stops, either temporarily or permanently, professional and elite-level athletes can experience the same psychological stages as people grieving the loss of a loved one. These are, typically: shock or denial, despair, anger, depression, pre-occupation, re-organisation, and finally acceptance.

The magnitude and extent to which an athlete stays in any of those stages depends on the individual. Depression is one of the most difficult stages in the cycle, and can vary from being a lifelong predisposition of low mood to depressive phases that vary in intensity.

Retirement from sport is a huge loss for an athlete. Most people who completely change occupations do so because they are not enjoying the career they are in; footballers and athletes, on the other hand, are often forced to retire from a sport they still very much love and enjoy participating in. At some point they are faced with two choices: to retire from the sport immediately, or move down the pecking order until retirement at a further date. In both cases they have to deal with loss, rejection and feelings of isolation or separation from team mates.

Research conducted by the Institute of Sports Science on retired athletes has shown one of the most frequent experiences is a sense of emotional loss associated with separation from significant others, such as coaches and teammates. That, coupled with a possible reduction in exercise, can also add to increased depression levels – regular exercise is known to release feelgood chemicals such as neurotransmitters and endorphins which help reduce depression and anxiety. At the same time, stress in itself produces hormones which can lead to chemical imbalances with too little serotonin in the brain.

It is important for people to understand that depression is not always visible, and the athlete or person may never admit to how they feel. Moreover, it can come on gradually or can be with the individual for many years. The athletes themselves may deal with these symptoms without fully recognizing them, until a trigger causes the symptoms to surface on a more powerful and negative scale. It is also more difficult for men because they are more reluctant to talk about their feelings, or how they are coping. This is also made more difficult by the social element and stereotypes often associated with male sports: the sense of identity, the banter, the feelings of being united, and laughter and fun that comes with belonging to a team. All that can be lost when the athlete retires from the sport.

 

Questionnaire 

 

Loss of Identity

An individual’s identity may contain numerous dimensions, however, it is possible for one in particular to become dominant or preferred and a lens through which the others are viewed. Athletic identity is described as the degree to which an individual identifies with the athlete role and looks to others for acknowledgement of that role (Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993). The neglect or atrophy of other roles as a consequence of the ascendancy of a single role may therefore expose the individual to subsequent identity issues. It has been hypothesised that the loss of a preferred or dominant role may subsequently effect a person’s overall self-concept (Markus, 1977;Stryker,1978).

Lavallee & Grove (1997) identified that individuals with a high athletic identity at the time of retirement were more likely to experience a higher degree of  emotional adjustment difficulties. Bill Cole, a world-renowned peak performance coach who has worked with many athletes who have struggled to come to terms with their retirement, noted that an important factor was this profound sense of loss in their lives that athletes may experience after putting their competing days behind them.

Tunnel Vision Syndrome

A “tunnel vision syndrome” affects many elite athletes to varying degrees at some stage of their careers. It is often the case that coaches, parents, professional sports agents and general managers are able to see it, however, athletes who are unaware that they suffer from tunnel vision spend far too much time thinking only of training, competition and results. As a result, athletes are left ill-prepared for the balanced perspective required of “real world” career opportunities. Britain’s double Olympic rowing champion James Cracknell stated, “I think people suffer from depression after retiring from sport because they aren’t sure where to apply that focus…there is a lot of focus and a lot of selfishness in sportsmen.” Athletes often cannot see their lives following another career path and as soon as the dreaded retirement looms, with this, brings a void that the comfort of a training routine once filled.

What Next?

There are a number of ways that athletes can help to reduce the chances of depression after retirement from sport, these include:

1. Reduce your exclusive identification with your sporting role and expand your self-identity to other pursuits
2. Discover interests and competences for other activities beyond sport (perhaps considering coaching or the mentoring of other athletes)
3. Acquiring stress management and time management skills (such skills will represent tools that help you better reconcile sport with your other roles)
4. Encourage strong relationships with coaches, family, friends and managers who care about your sporting success as well as your personal growth. Being supported by significant others to consider other avenues in life will help you keep an open mind and diversify your identity
5. Consult with a sport psychologist to help explore further avenues and adaptation techniques

Conclusion

The purpose of this article has been to provide insight and enable sports medicine and sports science to evolve as a profession with the integration of different diagnostic medical perspectives collaborating synergistically. It is critical to understand that although we are enhancing the way in which athletes train and develop, we must forget to find ways to decompress their brains and minds post-participation. Much like the very concept of sports itself; you “warm-up” and “cool-down” after play.

Athletes by nature are mentally tough individuals and are often perceived by the public to be fitter, healthier and happier than others. It is this attitude and stereotyping that can make it more difficult for them to approach someone for help. Therefore it is highly important for close family, friends, team mates and coaches to understand that depression cannot always be seen and the athlete may indeed never admit to how they feel for fear of shame and embarrassment. Being a retired or depressed pro athlete is no different than a housewife that’s depressed … because if you strip away the context, you’re going to get to the same key issues of identity, self-esteem, impulsivity, problem-solving, coping skills, capacity to manage change. All those elements will be there in both people.

For every athlete reading this, you’ve got to be able to cope with life after sports and the only way to do that is to realize that life goes on. It’s so important to realize sports is a component in life, a part of being happy, a component, but it’s not all of what life is and there’s so much more to life than just sports. The most important take home message is to understand that despite their incredible success in their hard-fought and dedicated careers, the process of retirement is a difficult one and it is in this time that social support and communication is of vital importance if the athlete is to avoid the dreaded post-retirement blues.

 

“Athletes identify themselves by what they do. Take that away and they feel abandoned and naked and at a loss for how to make sense of it. It’s as if a major piece of themselves has gone missing.” -Bill Cole