Suicide Among College Athletes Research Paper

821 Words2 Pages

At some point in your life, most of you have probably played a sport, and felt stressed or overwhelmed. Athletes have a lot of pressure on them to perform well, and have high goals for themselves. With pressures to perform in a game, as well as in the rest of their public lives, being an athlete can be incredibly challenging for a person’s mental health. Student-athletes have additional pressure to maintain their classwork and grades on top of practice and games. Trying to balance academics and the pressure to perform well in sports as a student-athlete can lead to feeling overwhelmed with life, but encouraging students to seek assistance can help prevent more serious mental health issues from developing. Mental health is an important topic …show more content…

Suicide rates among college athletes have doubled from 7.6% to 15.3% over the past twenty years. Many struggling student-athletes don’t have mental health professionals to visit, and that leads athletes to feeling unheard, or struggling in silence. 92% of colleges fail to deliver mental health support to athletes. Madison Holleran was a standout soccer player and track runner. Madison committed suicide in 2014 during her 2nd semester at University of Pennsylvania, due to pressures with college life and expectations of the track team. Madison is one example of many student-athletes who committed suicide. One college that provides mental health support for student-athletes is Penn State. They discuss managing expectations of athletes and managing what they think others' expectations of them are, and also help them understand that self-care isn't selfish. If more colleges had easier access to mental health professionals for athletes, suicide rates would go down. As a student-athlete myself, I have played sports for my whole life and experienced burnout, mental blocks, anxiety, and depression. Since I was little, I figure skated and had a lot of potential to make it …show more content…

None of my coaches or parents knew how I felt, and I think if I had someone to talk to about it, things could have ended differently. Now, I run track, cross country, and also play volleyball. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed with everything going on and school work on top of that. By trying to keep up good grades and turning in assignments on time, that can lead to stress, causing depression and anxiety. Running and volleyball are two sports that are very mental, and sometimes I struggle with being in my head too much, which impacts how I perform. There have been times where I wanted to give up on everything because it got to be too much mentally. Many athletes do not seek help because they don't want to show their weakness, and I can say that I am one of those many athletes. Burnout happens to a lot of athletes and it is important for people to know how to prevent or treat athlete burnout. According to a New York University review, 45% of youth athletes quit sports because of burnout, and 70% of kids quit sports by thirteen years old due to burnout. It is important that coaches and parents know that athlete burnout can happen to anyone, even at a young age, so it is important to not overtrain them and put too much pressure on

Open Document