College sports and mental illness: What they won’t admit hurts them

The click of a trigger…

The flash of black powder…

The explosion of a .223 caliber rifle round…

And a promising young life tragically ended.

When Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski took his own life in January of 2018, it rocked the college sports world. Hilinski was one of many student-athletes who suffer from mental health problems, and his death shone a light on a very dark subject.

College sports of all types are undergoing a shift in how student-athletes are viewed, but the subject of mental health is rarely brought up, and that needs to change.

Some of the most widely discussed and debated topics in our country today are college football and basketball – the chatter of college sports seems to never end. For everything from off-field player issues, to revamping the postseason and championships, and even FBI probes, college sports gets our attention.

But does the mental health of student-athletes get enough attention? Not nearly enough, not by a longshot.

Mental illness and mental health have become popular buzzwords in the world of political debate and discourse. It seems no matter the topic, there are factors which point to mental illness — and the lack of available and affordable treatment — as one of the primary issues.

However, a subject which is rarely broached, and probably should be openly discussed more often, is how amateur student-athletes are affected all too often by mental illness.

“The number one health issue facing student-athletes is mental health.” – Dr. Brian Hainline, NCAA Chief Medical Officer

Whether talking about men or women, mental health and treatment of mental illness seems to be an afterthought for many. Sports is a world where toughness is idolized and showing weakness or pain is taught to be unacceptable. That archaic way of thinking is dangerous enough when it comes to physical injury, but possibly even more catastrophic when mental health is at stake.

College football and basketball players need to feel comfortable bringing personal issues to the forefront and having freedom of discussion with coaches, teammates, and family.

How is that door of discussion opened?

Sometimes all it takes is for one domino to fall, and the chain reaction begins. That reaction may have begun with former UCLA basketball star and current Cleveland Cavalier Kevin Love’s groundbreaking article on The Players Tribune, titled “Everyone is Going Through Something“. 

Love opens up about his own mental health, and how his inability to share personal feelings and fears with others helped bring about a panic attack he suffered during halftime of a game against the Atlanta Hawks in November of 2017.

"“I was comfortable talking about basketball — but that came natural. It was much harder to share personal stuff, and looking back now I know I could have really benefited from having someone to talk to over the years. But I didn’t share — not to my family, not to my best friends, not in public.”"

Love’s heartfelt and painful words have echoed throughout the world of sports, both amateur and professional. As Love surmised, the seminal mantra for anyone involved in sports of “Be strong. Don’t talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own.” has likely done much more harm than good, particularly to young college athletes who suddenly find themselves thrust into completely new surroundings.

That feeling of being afraid to share, to show weakness, to admit pain, is like a locked cage for many student-athletes, and the only key which can be provided to release them is to make it clear that admitting to a problem inside your head is no more damning than admitting to suffering a physical injury.

Speaking with Dr. Brent Walker, a past president of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and current Associate Athletics Director for Championship Performance at Columbia University, I wanted to find out how much progress has been made in eliminating the stigma of mental illness in college sports, and how much work was yet to be done.

“I think culturally there’s a notion that we need to be strong, that we’re not supposed to admit our feelings,” Dr. Walker told me. “If you put that into a team atmosphere, there’s a concept that if I have a mental illness my teammates can’t depend on me and I’m not reliable.

“So there’s a fear that other people are going to find out. Not only with your teammates but with your coaches too, in the fact that if I’m dealing with something is the coach going to trust me? Putting me into a game when the game is on the line, is he going to view me as someone who’s reliable because I’m going through some sort of mental health issues?”

According to Walker, that fear of being viewed differently or less than teammates is the crux of why mental illness is so often overlooked in college sports. The concept of “how will this be used against me” is prevalent in both college and professional leagues, with the former having a much more permanently damaging effect early on in an athlete’s life.

The idea of dealing with mental illness is one area where males who participate in sports are woefully behind females — despite females being more prone to mental illness as a general rule — as the male athletic personae can take a big hit. “I think in big-time programs a major concern for male athletes is the whole concept of how will this be used against me,” Walker said.

This has translated into a very sad statistic: While females are more likely to attempt suicide, males are unfortunately more likely to successfully execute a suicide.

Amateur and professional athletes alike suffer under the yoke of this stigma, with it having a perceived effect on playing time, starting roles, draft positions and contract negotiations. Toronto Raptors All-Star Demar DeRozan opened up about his feelings on dealing with mental illness and how the money can contribute to the problem.

Walker pointed out how DeRozan hit the nail on the head as to centering what a big part of the problem is for athletes to deal with this, whether college or professional.

“I think Demar DeRozan’s comments kind of revealed an important point, in that athletes are people too. We all go through…we all struggle with certain things. It doesn’t matter how much money we make or how good we are at our job, we all have struggles. Two of the most common mental health issues we see in [athletes] are depression and anxiety, and it’s very common for people to experience both together.”

Can the pressure to perform well on the field, as well as keeping up with studies, eligibility requirements and personal life issues be contributing factors to anxiety? Absolutely. According to Walker, the environment in which athletes grow up — where successes and failures are often times public — is used as leverage to justify the means by which they live, whether it be scholarships or a chance at paychecks in the future.

With so much pressure, so much at stake, and such young, impressionable and virtually unprotected minds being continually hammered, what can be done? The first step, as it is in so many cases, is admitting there is a problem and seeking help. Once that step has been taken, then according to Walker, it’s amazing how much progress can be made towards healing.

“What happens a lot of times when you sit down with someone to talk about your issues is your eyes are opened when you just simply verbalize them and you hear yourself say it,” Walker said. “Your perspective starts to change to “wow, now that I say it out loud, I begin to see what’s been going on”.

“The real advantage when you’re sitting down with a therapist or sitting down with an expert, they can help you adjust your perspective. They can help you kind of work through whatever issues you’re dealing with. Beyond just that simple fact of acknowledging there’s a problem, you have a liaison. You have a relationship with someone who doesn’t judge you, but who allows you to work through whatever issues you’re having.”

The question then becomes, for college athletes who find themselves under the constant pressure to perform in so many different ways, should mental health treatment — both well care and sick — be a part of the overall compensation package received along with scholarships, stipends, and other perks.

The quick answer would have to be yes, and the NCAA obviously sees some value to this idea, as Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Hainline was quoted by Walker as saying, “The number one health issue facing student-athletes is mental health.”

Hainline has made a push within intercollegiate athletic departments to hire medical practitioners who can deal with mental health issues facing today’s student-athlete, and his recommendations have been well-received by some fairly lofty names, including Alabama’s Nick Saban, who has always been ahead of the curve and at the forefront for the utilization of psychiatrists and psychologists within his program.

Saban has been an advocate of mental health care in more than one way. In 2016 per Al.com, Saban spoke out strongly about suicide prevention, making calls to Alabama political leaders about enacting legislation to prevent youth suicide. He then served as the honorary chairman for the NAMIWalks Alabama, a 5K walk which raises money and awareness for mental health issues. His feelings on mental health issues, particularly dealing with youth, have helped bring much-needed change to the sport.

“We’ve been very, very fortunate through the years to have very few players suffer issue and problems when we were coaching them,” Saban told reporters. “But we have had some. And it’s one of the most devastating things that you have to go through, even as a coach. I never experienced it as a parent. I’m here to help the young people.

“This is not a political thing for me. Aight, this is all about how can we help our youth have a better opportunity with our help and assistance, that we can see warning signs of something that is very, very preventable.”

Saban’s message, as with most things he does, has spread throughout the community of football coaches and is helping bring about some changes.

“It’s become much more prevalent,” Walker told me. “Not only in terms of the hiring of professionals within college athletics but also to have a real policy and procedures approach to dealing with any sort of mental health issues that student-athletes may encounter. I think the more prevalent that becomes, then the more open athletes are going to be to seeking help for anything they’re dealing with.”

Ideally, it would be a wonderful thing for all student-athletes if the availability of a mental health professional were as common as the trainers and physical health professionals are, both in their training centers and even on game days.

Thankfully, in college football, this idea is already being embraced by many Power-5 programs, who have made the decision to have psychiatric help on staff for players. However, there’s still a big gap in available treatment for players, even in the richest and most powerful programs in the country.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, as of the end of the 2016 season, only 39 percent of all Division I athletic programs had a full-time licensed mental health practitioner on staff. The same survey also indicated a majority (57.3%) of the respondents — made up of NCAA Division I trainers — believed they would be able to provide better care to student-athletes if mental health services were available onsite in the training room.

Trainers not only have to deal with the physical effects of an injury but also with the mental anguish which can come from a season-ending or even career-ending injury. Dr. Walker was in agreement that this is a crucial part of mental health awareness.

“Season-ending and career-ending injuries are difficult to deal with because it also involves a change in identity,” Walker said. “So, for example, if I’m a high-level athlete, being an athlete is a core part of my identity. When I get injured and I miss a season I lose the core component of my identity.

“Through my experiences in working with athletes, you tend to see one or two approaches to an injury. One is — for some athletes — what they want to do is be around the team as much as possible. They want to do their rehab with the team. They want to be a manager while they can’t play, they want to be as involved as possible.

“Other athletes are the exact opposite. It’s too painful to be there so they just want to completely remove themselves.”

In 2015, when Georgia running back Nick Chubb was lost for the remainder of the season after injuring his knee against Tennessee, he not only had to deal with the physical rehab but keeping his mind right as well.

“When I got hurt my mind was somewhere else,” Chubb told Dawgnation.com. “I was just trying to see what the next step for me was. At that moment I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I didn’t put myself in any kind of predicament to predict anything coming.”

The toughest part for Chubb was being away from his team even if it was only for one important game that season.

“That was the Florida game, and we all know how that went,” Chubb said. “So just being at home, watching that, around some friends I shouldn’t have been around, it just kinda hurt.”

While Chubb’s situation obviously had a positive ending, with him eventually being able to return to full strength, not every player is so lucky. Dealing with the loss of a player’s career is something most athletic trainers and coaches aren’t prepared to handle, and having a trained professional on staff could make all the difference in a student-athlete’s future.

A perfect example of how important this can be was seen at Virginia Tech, where Dr. Gary Bennett has been on staff as an in-house clinical and sports psychologist since 2000.

In 2016, Bennett helped save the life of then-redshirt freshman Austin Cannon, who had been fighting a personal battle with depression and injuries. Following a series of personal tragedies and a concussion sustained in a scrimmage, Cannon tried to kill himself. Thankfully he reached out to the Virginia Tech training staff and was reached in time. His story is all-too-common and doesn’t always end with the life-saving phone call.

Following his medical treatment, Cannon began regular counseling sessions with Bennett.

“It’s a really good thing that Dr. Bennett is here in the facility with us,” Cannon told The Ringer. “I feel more comfortable going to see him rather than seeing a counselor somewhere else. He’s been talking to athletes. That’s what he does for a living. I think it’d be easier to talk to [someone like that] and he’s more understanding than a regular counselor.”

The message which can be taken from all of this – athletes are people too. Their pains, their dark thoughts, and their susceptibility to mental illness is no different than anyone else.

Nipping it in the bud, and getting help before problems fester is the goal. While Kevin Love’s letter and testimonials from other athletes are an encouraging sign, it would be great if we didn’t need those in the future.

Despite all the progress, there’s still a long way to go in making athletes feel comfortable enough in who they are and what they can accomplish in spite of dealing with the unfortunate commonality of mental health issues.