Student-athletes are not exempt from mental health issues. They represent a unique population of young adults. In comparison to their non-athlete peers, student-athletes must manage different challenges associated with sports. Student-athletes tend to seek help less often than their peers.  

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“Approximately 46.6 million people are living with mental illness in the US. That’s 1 in 5 adults who will be living with a mental health condition at some point in their lives” Robin Kuik and Suzanne Potts wrote, in their 2021 work, “Mental Health & Athletes.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) states that (2021) they are “a member-led organization, [that] was founded in 1906 to regulate the rules of college sport and protect young athletes.”  

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There are over 500,000 student-athletes every year in the NCAA. According to data from the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) surveys, “about 31% of male and 48% of female NCAA student-athletes reported either depression or anxiety symptoms each year of the 2012 and 2016 academic year” wrote Jennifer Moreland, Kathryn Coxe and Jingzhen Yang, in their 2018 journal, “Collegiate athletes’ mental health services utilization: A systematic review of conceptualization, operationalization, and barriers.”  

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Healthy student-athletes are in an outstanding position to thrive athletically and academically; unfortunately, many student-athletes fail to get help with their mental health due to factors such as mental health stigma or lack of knowledge. Mental health needs to be prioritized in the athletic community. “It was not until 2013 that the NCAA hosted its first-ever Mental Health Task Force” (NCAA, 2021).  

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Athletes hold their own opinion and attitudes regarding mental health. Nobody questions a student-athlete taking time to recover from a sprained ankle or dislocated shoulder. Those injuries are clear to understand and can be seen. But what about those student-athletes who need help with their mental health?  

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Depression, anxiety, eating disorders or any mental health illness does not show up on an MRI or a personal trainer's assessment, but they can be just as or even more limiting as any physical injury. These signs are often ignored because of fear of showing weakness.  

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The NCAA promotes positive mental health, and they view mental health as a growing area of concern. “As a result, the NCAA has published multiple documents and resources for schools to utilize when educating coaches, student-athletes, and administrations about mental health issues for student-athletes. In addition, they have compiled a best-practices manual regarding [the] mental health of college athletes. The manual discusses topics such as appropriate licensures of mental health practitioners, procedures of identification and referral of mental health issues, pre-participation mental health screenings, and promoting healthy environments” wrote Heather Ryan, Joy Gales & Lydia Bell, in their 2018 research article, “Student-Athletes and Mental Health Experiences.”    

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The NCAA states that “mental health is a part of, not apart from, athlete health. Mental health exists on a continuum, with resilience and thriving on one end of the spectrum and mental health disorders that disrupt a college athlete’s functioning and performance at the other. We strive to improve access to quality mental healthcare with the goal of creating a culture where care seeking for mental health issues is as normative as care seeking for physical injuries.” 

 

The NCAA provides resources and practices regarding mental health for the student-athletes, coaches and athletic staff with organizations that are credited. The NCAA is endorsed by the following organizations;  

• American Academy of Sleep Medicine 

• American College of Sports Medicine 

• American Medical Society for Sports Medicine 

• American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine 

• American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine 

• Association for Applied Sport Psychology 

• Association of Black Psychologists 

• College Athletic Trainers’ Society 

• Collegiate Clinical/Counseling Sport Psychology Association 

• Faculty Athletics Representatives Association 

• Higher Education Mental Health Alliance 

• American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 

• American College Counseling Association 

• American College Health Association 

• American College Personnel Association 

• American Psychiatric Association 

• American Psychological Association 

• Association for University and College Counseling Directors 

• The Jed Foundation 

• NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education 

• International Society for Sport Psychiatry 

• National Alliance on Mental Illness 

• National Athletic Trainers’ Association 

• Society for Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology 

• Sleep Research Society 

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Even though, the NCAA is endorsed by all of these credible organizations that provide research, information, practices, and resources the NCAA does not mandate anything for their student-athletes' mental health.  

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There are few, if any, specific programs that have been implemented to promote positive mental health among student-athletes. One that is becoming widely known and growing across campuses in the nation is “The Bandana Project.”  

“After losing an uncle and a close friend to suicide in high school, Conlin Bass went to college avidly looking for ways to dismantle the stigma surrounding mental illnesses and to normalize seeking care for mental health. As part of this mission, he founded The Bandana Project (BP) on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus January of 2016 with the help of his NAMI [National Alliance on Mental Illness] on Campus chapter. The Bandana Project is a simple yet innovative suicide prevention and mental health awareness movement. Members tie a lime-green bandana to their backpack, signifying they are in possession of campus-specific and national resources. This proliferates resources, normalizes and de-stigmatizes getting help, and provides invaluable, unspoken solidarity with those struggling.” (Bandana Project, 2022) 

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These initiatives are a great start, but without every school being required to coordinate these programs, many student-athletes will still be left alone to deal with their mental health issues. Not only should athletic programs have clear guidelines for referring student-athletes to highly qualified professionals, they should also have a clear emergency plan for student-athletes who experience mental health issues. Athletic programs have the resources to design preventative mental health programs, policies, and practices that promote positive mental health. 

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The NCAA can and should initiate its own programs for student-athletes, while also mandating that individual schools incorporate screenings and mental health days into their training programs.  Incorporating a sports psychologist would benefit every program. If coaches can extend the 20-hour rule of their student athletes most of the time I believe they can fit in a mental health day for their team. 

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The 20-hour rule is stated by the NCAA as “Bylaw 17.1.5.1 ‘During the Playing Season’ A student-athlete's participation in countable athletically related activities shall be limited to a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week.”  

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The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is composed of at least two members of each sport to represent the student-athlete body. This committee reviews NCAA activities and proposed legislation and offers student-athletes input.  

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Mental health is an overdue conversation. The stigma surrounding mental health needs to be removed, and there needs to be an understanding that these issues can stem from so many things. Whether an injury, a difficult relationship with a coach, bad performances or games, or a more serious condition, it needs to be discussed. Athletes need to know that they are not alone, there are resources out there that can help them, and it is okay to not be okay. 

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Athletes are and have always been portrayed as being tough, with great physical strength and that athletes should always exude excellence. Those standards have a weight on student-athletes. NCAA athletes do not only face difficulties from the transition to adulthood and college academics, but the pressure to keep up and be in peak physical and mental condition. The sport that the student-athlete once loved starts to feel like a chore, these issues lead to them losing the passion for their sport, their happy place.  

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Athletes are people too. As many student-athletes suffer from mental health but many do not seek help because of different barriers. It is important to notice that each illness has its own symptoms, and it can affect everyone differently. These are some signs or things that might ‘seem off’ that peers could notice. NAMI states the following as the symptoms of mental health issues; 

• Excessive worrying or fear 

• Feeling excessively sad or low 

• Confused thinking or problems concentrating and learning 

• Extreme mood changes, including uncontrollable “highs” or feelings of euphoria 

• Prolonged or strong feelings of irritability or anger 

• Avoiding friends and social activities 

• Difficulties understanding or relating to other people 

• Changes in sleeping habits or feeling tired and low energy 

• Changes in eating habits such as increased hunger or lack of appetite 

• Changes in sex drive 

• Difficulty perceiving reality (delusions or hallucinations, in which a person experiences and senses things that don't exist in objective reality) 

• Inability to perceive changes in one’s own feelings, behavior or personality (”lack of insight” or anosognosia) 

• Overuse of substances like alcohol or drugs 

• Multiple physical ailments without obvious causes (such as headaches, stomach aches, vague and ongoing “aches and pains”) 

• Thinking about suicide 

• Inability to carry out daily activities or handle daily problems and stress 

• An intense fear of weight gain or concern with appearance 

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This topic can be tough to talk about. However, athletes are natural leaders and self-starters. If anybody can make a change and shift the stigma about mental health, it is student-athletes. If they work together to bring mental health into a regular conversation and SAAC members speak up to reach the NCAA’s attention, the door can be opened to create real change.  

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