Athletics
Athletics can be a wonderful avenue to gain a sense of one’s identity and provide a community of individuals with similar aspirations and goals. However, it can also be a space that results in pressure, anxiety, overwhelm, uncertainty, low self-esteem, and negative body image. For many people, being an athlete creates a sense of pride that is fun and exciting, maybe even the first time you really felt you could express yourself. In the same light, it’s easy to find your whole identity in your sport and forget who you are apart from it. Athletes may also experience performance anxiety and need support in order to reach peak performance. Student athletes may also have additional pressures to maintain their academics on top of practice and games. Below are just a few examples of warning signs that your athlete may be experiencing burnout.
Burnout in Sports might look like:
Being constantly tired and unmotivated, but struggling to rest and sleep
Making “careless mistakes” more often
You find yourself stuck in “freeze mode”
Losing that original passion you once had for the sport
Feeling the sport has turned into a stressful obligation
Constantly thinking about what your coaches said to you or might say, outside of practice
Procrastination often paired with overwhelm and stress
Feeling irritable and cynical - like the things you’re doing in and out of practice don’t matter or aren’t important
How can therapy help with athletics?
Athletes can benefit from therapy by exploring different avenues of balance based on the individual’s current lifestyle. Stress and anxiety can be identified along with coping skills to help the athlete build confidence and resilience. Therapist and client would explore together how the sport may be impacting the clients mental health and outlook on life. One of the most beneficial parts of therapy is that athletes can begin to see their world from more of a wide lens, creating space for them to be first a human, then an athlete.
