Sports Psychiatry Program

Psychological and Psychiatric Issues Affecting Athletes

Athletes can experience a wide range of psychological and psychiatric issues. The treatment will be personalized based on our patient’s specific brain type. Some of the issues that effect athletes include the following:

• Anxiety: Performance anxiety, social anxiety, and other forms of anxiety are common among athletes of all ages and abilities.
• Depression: Based on research, approximately 15.6%-21%—or as many as 1 in 5—college athletes may have major depressive disorder, more than twice the rate of 18-25-year-olds who aren’t athletes. Statistics on depression among professional athletes are hard to come by. Research suggests that due to the stigma associated with mental health issues and the elite athlete’s desire to avoid appearing weak, depression is likely underreported, underdiagnosed, and undertreated in the professional ranks. Depression can also strike when a player’s career comes to an end. A 2018 survey found that half of all retired elite athletes contend with a loss of identity, feelings of regret, and for some of them, depression.
• Lack of focus or attention: Athletes who have trouble staying focused on their training or during a game or event may have ADD/ADHD. Emerging research shows that ADD/ADHD may be more common in athletes than in non-athletes. Treating this underlying condition can make a significant difference in an athlete’s ability to perform.
• Head injuries and concussions: The dangers of concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in sports has been making headlines in recent years. Each year, there are over 2 million TBIs in the U.S., and the number of concussions is rising especially among children. Head injuries can come from a tackle in football, a fall off a bike, or from repetitive actions like headers in soccer. And you don’t have to black out or be diagnosed with a concussion to have lasting psychiatric symptoms. Healing the underlying damage to the brain is essential for overcoming symptoms.
• Coping with injuries: Unfortunately, injuries are common in sports and can cause feelings of depression and a loss of a sense of identity. Learning to cope psychologically with setbacks can keep athletes on track with rehabilitation so they can get back in the game.
• Low motivation problems: When an athlete won’t commit to a practice schedule, doesn’t give 100%, or appears lazy, it can be a sign of depression, ADD/ADHD, or other mental health disorders. Uncovering the underlying cause of the issue is key to ramping up energy and effort.
• Negative thinking patterns: Getting stuck in a loop of negative thinking during a match or game can actually shut down areas of the brain involved in coordination making it harder to make that free throw or pitch a strike.
• Sleep Disorders: Sleep plays a major role in athletics. When athletes aren’t getting enough sleep or have disrupted sleep, it can negatively impact their physical performance, split-second decision-making, motivation, post-game recovery, and risk of injury. On the flip side, improving the duration and quality of sleep can improve all of these areas. In fact, studies have shown that increasing sleep duration improves speed and shooting accuracy in college basketball players and improves accuracy in college tennis players.
• Substance abuse: Studies show that some athletes turn to alcohol, marijuana, opiates, stimulants, or other drugs for performance enhancement, pain relief, or self-medication to cope with anxiety/stress or depression. Finding healthier ways to treat anxiety and depression and to live up to expectations is a better long-term solution.
• Eating disorders: Both male and female athletes are at higher risk of developing eating disorders, according to a study in BMJ, while other studies show that eating disorders affect as many as 60% of female athletes. The use of diet pills, laxatives, diuretics, and other weight management strategies are common in both female and male athletes, especially those in sports that emphasize appearance or weight requirements, such as gymnastics, figure skating, bodybuilding, and wrestling.
• Overtraining syndrome: The push to excel in sports can lead to overtraining, which is associated with depressed moods, fatigue, neurohormonal changes, and other issues. A 2012 review of the research on overtraining syndrome found that approximately 60% of elite runners pushed themselves too hard compared with just 33% of recreational joggers, and 35% of adolescent swimmers had been “overtrained” at least once.
• Bipolar disorder: Professional athletes and recreational sports enthusiasts are just as vulnerable to bipolar disorder as non-athletes. The stress of competition may trigger manic episodes.
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that OCD may be more than twice as common in college athletes as in the general population. An obsession with calories, hyperfocus on physique, rituals, and superstitions are some of the OCD symptoms seen in athletes.
• Team conflict: Teams are like families. If there’s one person who’s suffering from a mental health condition, everyone suffers. Understanding each team member’s brain type and how that influences the way they think, feel, and act can be very helpful in managing different personalities on a team.
• Anger management: Everybody gets angry from time to time, but when the degree of anger or aggression is greatly out of proportion to the situation, it’s could be an indicator that something’s wrong.