We as humans all have our own issues and struggles, and treating them is what we all require, in the same way, athletes face a lot of issues be under pressure to achieve on the fields or tracks or outreaching their goals. Portraying their struggle Deeanna Kastor a long-distance runner and an Olympian very well quoted, “as athletes, we have ups and downs. Unfortunately, you can’t pick the days they come on” thus, the struggle is the part of every story.
In order to get past these hurdles’ athletes do need a form of support for handling stress, pressure, anxiety wherein mental therapy and psychological treatments come in hand. But before knowing why the athletes need psychological treatment let`s fall a jot back in this race and see what it actually means.
Imagine sharing all your downhearted thoughts to your friends or family, most of the time leads to one-way conversation and you can’t get anything cleared out or get some advice that you can inculcate. In a similar way psychological treatment is bursting out all your thoughts and to a medical professional who would listen, understand, and try to get an outcome of the problem.
In technical terms is also called psychotherapy wherein one with the help of several theories incorporates healthy outcomes muddle.
Thus, do you think athletes need this? Of course, they, in order to know more let`s continue this relay.(Poczwardowski, A., Aoyagi, M.W., Shapiro, J.L. and Van Raalte, J.L., 2014)
As previously said athletes go through a lot of ups and downs and hardships and in order to get past it they need some support mentally. According to the stats, it is said that athletes tend to have mental health issues to a greater extent as compared to people from other fields mainly due to the following aspects.
Competition is one such aspect that builds pressure in the lives of athletes and thus, leads to anxiety. After all the years of blood, sweat, and tears athletes come very far to achieve “the end” which is the finishing line. And thus, in order to get over such stress and anxiety, they need something to burst their bubble, and thus, this is where psychological treatment comes in the relay.
Being an athlete is difficult. “Expectation” is the starting point of this relay. Expectation from your own self to make yourself and everyone else proud, expectations from your family to flourish and glorify in what you are doing, the expectation of your friends to be in touch and not lose contact, the expectation of your coach from an athlete gain achievement. All these expectations thus take a toll on the athlete and thus require mental therapy to keep insane.
Athletes go through hardcore training sessions from running laps of 800m in the field to maintaining a proper diet and keeping up with it often leads to exhaustion and burnouts which in turn leaves the athletes with stress and anxiety or even depression and thus, if not given proper guidance can lead to further issues and hence, physical treatment can be beneficial.
Failure is another big fight they have to cope up with, athletes often fail, and constant failure leaves them down to losing self-esteem and confidence in their own self and thus, leaves them without any hope. In order to face such situations, they would or might need some professional help before they seep down to mental disorders and thus, psychological help is needed.
Thus, these are several such reasons that need legitimate support and thus yes, athletes do need mental support or psychological help.
Many profound athletes have suffered through depression, ‘the rock’, is Dwayne Johnson who suffered from depression once said, “with depression one of the most important things you could realize is that you are not alone, you’re the first to go through it.. wish I had someone at that time who could pull me aside and say, hey! It's going to be okay” and this someone can be your therapist, your listener, and advisor and thus, here are a few reasons why psychological performance treatment can be beneficial for athletes.
Psychological treatments can be of various types be it cognitive, behavioral, or intrapersonal or through counseling all can act as an aid to the athletes, these therapies go deep into their minds and see what is affecting them and hence, come to the solution which in turn can provide the motivation to move ahead and win the race.
These therapies are very effective and in case an athlete is under immense fear of not winning and losing self-confidence, psychotherapy can thus get to depth and encourage the player to face it and instead of running away from it. Which can get rid of their fears and can move forward.
Psychological treatment can be conducted on an individual or a group level and thus, this ensures they are not alone, these athletes often tend to face and fight alone even on tracks or off tracks thus, as Dwayne Johnson there might be several such athletes who would need someone and medical psychotherapy where they can let everything out and get receive outcomes.
Thus, these are several such measures that one can involve themselves in. But keep one thing in mind “just keep going. Everybody gets better if they keep at it”, Ted Williams. (Bannister, T., Ebert, E.E., Williams, T., Douglas, P., Wain, A., Carroll, M., Silver, J., Newbigin, E., Lampugnani, E.R., Hughes, N. and Looker, C., 2021)
