Islamabad - The benefits of playing sports, especially its positive impact on mental health have been well documented. According to a number of studies, teenagers who play sports tend to experience less stress and better mental health, but what about those athletes who actually develop mental illnesses due to the pressure that comes with being a professional sportsperson and the illnesses that that occur due to physical injuries that these athletes suffer during training, practice or competitions. The relationship between sports and mental health is rarely talked about in mainstream media, when an athlete commits suicide or plays poorly during a game due to depression; nobody really focuses on their mental health. Athletes who suffer from mental illnesses are scared to talk about it openly due to the stigma attached to these illnesses as they are seen to be physically strong, so people around them have a hard time believing that these players could be suffering from a mental illness. Moreover, the fear that their condition could negatively impact future contract negotiations and team selections is also a big reason behind their silence. In a place where winning is everything, there is very little space for words such as anxiety or depression, if you can’t take the pressure you’ll be thrown off the team and would be immediately replaced with someone better, this itself is a source of constant anxiety for most players. A number of athletes end up committing suicide due to severe stress, majority of these cases remain unreported due to the religious and societal stigma attached with suicide, few reported cases include Pakistan’s fastest woman athlete Mubeen Akhtar who committed suicide after facing sexual harassment, followed by the death of Halima Rafique, a cricketer from Multan, who committed suicide by drinking acid due to extreme stress. Earlier this year, former international cricketer Aamer Hanif’s son committed suicide due to anxiety and depression after non-selection in an Under-19 cricket team. During an interview Pakistan’s football captain, Hajra Khan told me that she suffers from depression and high functioning anxiety, and is opening up about her own struggle in order to inspire others to seek help. “When an athlete experiences physical injury, there is often a team of medical personnel employed to ensure a speedy recovery. However, when an athlete experiences a mental health issue, he/she is not treated the same way,” she said, adding that she will launch a formal campaign for mental health of athletes so they would be provided with sufficient facilities and would not succumb to the pressures attached to the game.

The internal struggles that athletes face on a daily basis often goes unnoticed, the expectations and commitment often weighs on their psyche, as they end up engaging in self destructive behavior after suppressing their emotions for too long. So it is vital to teach these athletes that it is okay to talk to someone about how they’re feeling and that therapy would only help them become better at their jobs. Coaches should encourage their players to seek help and should talk about the importance of mental health as they do about physical health, instead of forcing players to “toughen up”. Due to the stigma attached with mental health in professional sports, athletes are expected to be immune to depression and anxiety and have unbreakable will and superhuman strength.  I talked to Mian Hamza Hayaud Din, a Pakistani rugby player and professional cyclist about mental health, who disclosed that he suffers from depression and anxiety. When asked about whether the sports board offers any mental health facilities or support to athletes in Pakistan, he said “Absolutely not. The entire approach to mental health, particularly among athletes is pitiful. Personally, when I was knocked out cold from a tackle in a match, it became something of a joke among the team and there was no follow-up regarding the effects of my concussion and that was in an instance where there was tangible physical harm. The support from a mental level is not only nonexistent but our sporting structure is such that our training camps, selection policies, and the entire process of being a national athlete actually induces mental distress. The players are kept in a permanent state of suspense regarding their status on the team, so nobody knows where they stand regarding selection. The basic belief here is to continually test the athletes in trials, pitting them against each other which not only makes it difficult to foster goodwill between athletes, but also creates a constant environment of fear and stress. This is where many armchair pundits will say “toughen up”, but the fact is, if you’re constantly ‘trying out’ for the team, it disrupts the training routine you should be following, because a trial typically means you have to give a maximal effort, whereas any solid training plan is built on periodisation - a structure where you have phases of building up intensity and recovering. So not only is it mentally jarring, but it ruins athletes’ conditioning as well.” 

 He informed me that the management is also governed by politics to the point that athletes often walk on eggshells so as not to offend the higher-ups and risk being dropped from the team for personal reasons. “I’ve definitely abraded people by having the audacity to speak up when something they were doing was technically inaccurate or physically harmful. This constant need to be on your best behaviour creates the same air of sycophancy you find within the bureaucracy and stifles any development, so you end up with stagnant methodologies espoused by increasingly irrelevant and out of touch management. This leads to athletes who become yes men and just execute whatever is requested of them, which sees many promising ones either burn out or never live up to their performance,” he said. “There are so many factors that are already playing on an athlete’s mind that they’re only able to devote a fraction of their attention/focus to their performance. Athletes are just expected to train at the same intensity year-round with no break leading up to their events. Beyond that, there’s an entire component of verbal abuse wherein coaches still believe “tough love” is the optimal way of obtaining results, so you’ll hear insults about an athlete’s masculinity, sexuality, family, physical appearance, all in the name of motivating them. At the end of the day, being screamed at takes a massive mental toll on athletes, especially because not everyone reacts to a training stimulus the same way.”

 Hamza suggests that there should be an independent psychological evaluation of each sporting programme, it should be mandatory for every coach and manager to take a course in sports psychology before they’re allowed to train athletes at a national level and if the budget allows, they should hire a sports psychologist for athletes. He said that the biggest issue is the country’s overall relationship with mental health. “We as athletes are known for our mental toughness, but oftentimes, we’re the ones who struggle the most but don’t have the time, space, or energy to engage with it in a healthy manner. Until there’s an initiative to normalize these conversations across the board, sports will unfortunately be one of the last arenas in which sweeping change will occur,” he concluded.