Argumentative Essay: Depression Among Female Athletes

Argumentative Essay

Depression: a common mental disorder which affects up to one in four female athletes and one in nine male athletes. Being an athlete is a difficult task, and can tear down one's well-being. Therefore, they are more likely to experience depression. Three reasons that athletes are more likely to experience depression is the retirement of a sport creates a void in their life, they’re more prone to injury, and they have a great deal of pressure put on them.

To begin, one rationale for athletes being more likely to experience depression is most retired sports competitors struggle to fill the void of playing their game. According to Elena Schneider and Cara Cooper, “Sports psychologists say that even though many student-athletes

initially feel relief after finishing their athletic career, some still suffer depression and other mental-health issues for several years after graduation” (2013). Athletes are constantly flexing their schedules for sports. Especially if they are a student-athlete because they may miss crucial class time for the sport. Regardless of what type of contender, constant mental preparation for the next day to come is a necessity. They are always sacrificing their precious time for their love of the sport. So, not having a sport to play anymore is a huge loss. For instance, some describe it as if it is like losing a loved one. Without being on a team anymore, athletes can’t depend on having training or a game every day, and for some they are so used to sacrificing their time to their love of the game that they don’t know how to deal with it. To add, Weigand, Cohen, and Merenstein point out that, “Former athletes may no longer workout as vigorously each day and, as a result, lose peak physical condition, which is a factor for depression” (2013). Everyone wants a good self image. In today’s society, image is everything. As an athlete, persistent physical activity is a given, and without that guided necessity of exercise, retired athletes do not workout 24/7. As a result, they lose their toned physique because of the deprivation of one’s body is used to receiving, and fall into a mental state. To elaborate, exercise is proven to attribute greatly to fighting depression, and a sudden loss of it may throw off the momentum of one’s well-being.
To continue, an additional reason that athletes are more likely to experience depression is that athletes are more prone to injury which may link to depression. Vargas, Rabinowitz, meyer, and Arnett state that, “In addition to increasing suicide risk, postconcussion depression symptoms (PCDS) have been associated with worse functional outcome, cognitive performance, and and quality of life after injury” (2015). Being left out of a sport is anything, but fun. Especially if one’s reason for sitting out is for something they cannot control, injury. Injury within athletes is very tough to cope with because athletes are supposed to be “tough”. With the sudden loss of “toughness”in them, as in they become weaker because of injury, some athletes struggle to rebound and become a star again. Thus, some fall into deep depression, and become hopeless. To illustrate further, Yang, Schaefer, Zhang, Covassin, Ding, and Heiden point out that, “Advances in sports medicine have reduced the average time required for physical healing from an athletic injury, yet a rapid physical recovery may not provide sufficient time for psychological recovery” (2014). Of course, athletes are very urgent to getting back to a physical healthy state as soon as possible. Some will go to an extreme extent to strengthen their injury spot by overworking it to speed up recovery. However, that can be acutely stressful, and that stress is often ignored. Stress of rebounding quicklly is doing more harm than good. The human body needs time to heal itself effectively and slowly. By taking sports medicines, it throws the regular healing process out of whack. As a result of being under extreme mental strain, athletes fall into a deep mental state without noticing. Some leading to self-harm.
Additionally, many people believe athletes aren’t prone to depression because they get constant attention.

However, what this argument does not take into account is that athletes have an abundance of pressure put on them that most non-athletes don’t ever experience. Hence, the saying, “go hard or go home”. A recent study emphasizes this fact as McClatchy notes, ”The researchers monitored mood levels of 465 collegiate athletes over three years and found 6.3 percent of the athletes met the criteria for clinically significant depression and 24 percent were considered ‘clinically relevant’ “ (2016). Studies like these prove that athletes are not blind to the idea of depression, but rather experience this disorder themselves. Anxiety has a huge role in depression. As sportsperson, there is constant effort to become an awe-inspiring player. As the stakes of the game raise, so does the anxiety. Some want a scholarship, some want to show off what they offer to a team that got a scholarship, and some are professionals. Regardless of whether it's grade school sport or a professional sport, failing at personal goals one set is down right depressing. Kearns and Hwang state that, ”While it’s not clear whether the source of challenges to a student-athlete's mental well-being is the same as those non-athletes, collegiate athletes are known to encounter unique stressor that the general population doesn’t have to deal with, such as the demands, relationships with coaches and missed scheduled classes” (2014). Pressure is something everyone experiences. However, athletes experience some of the same pressure that of non-athletes and then some. Being on a sports team is demanding to time and the idea of being “superior”. In athletics, coaches are everything. For example, If a coach likes how a person attributes as a team player, then that person will get a chance to shine. However, if the coach is not very fond of one, then the chances of opportunities are not very

likely. Therefore, relationships with coaches are crucial to athletes. To add, outside pressure is very common to athletes, such as their fans or peers. If an athlete fails to execute a challenge in a game, then they’ll get talked about among their peers and from others, such as parents, or just fans. Some can’t handle constant eyes judging every move they make. Thus, they fall into depression.
Ultimately, just because one has an athletic profile does not mean their life is all glamourous. Athletes have to deal with so much more in their daily life than one a non-athlete. Depression affects athletes after retirement, through the stages of injury(which happens frequently among many athletes), and through the pressure that comes along with the sport one takes on. Realizing that athletes struggle as much as any other person would if not more, is a great way to attribute to this controversial topic. Providing support for athletes affected may even save someones life.