Being that I am existentially-oriented, I would defend that elite athletes tend to avoid big existential questions of sports. For instance, they generally don't struggle through the understanding of why they are in sports or the specific sport to begin with (finding meaning in a meaningless activity).

Also, they try to avoid thinking about retirement form the activity until some event makes them face the challenge (with the obvious debilitating consequences that this connection may have). They don't face the "death" of their career.

Of course, adopting such approach entails a view of mental health that departs from the normal-abnormal dualism and accepts that issues such as those you mentioned are a question of degree.

Hi guys. I'm looking at exercise environments that promote better adherence and attendance behaviours. One of the frameworks that is gaining popularity in this field is social ecological. It takes into account a dynamic, complex relationship between environment (physical, social, economical and organisational) and the individual. I think this could easily be applied to sport and think is has in terms of stadium design and fans behaviours. Another that comes to mind is ecological systems theory which again takes environments into account but divides them into different nested systems staring at the micro-scale (the direct physical and social environment that causes behaviour) up through several systems until it reaches the macro-level which is culture as a whole.

Hi everyone

I am familar with the sports enviroment (boxing coach). Shane comments above, i thinks is referring to the biopsychosocial model in relation to stress, it is very recent explanation, ( Sapolsky, Stanford) and applys to antecedents of stress as individuated, Biologlical in nature but not explicit, rather an interaction with enviroment and a big emphasis on social interaction in early years, in relation to primary caregivers, I think that is taken on board today, as we see a lot of proping are children " go champ" etc. Also socio economic status has a lot to do with it. I see a lot of kids coming through the boxing, they enter the sport unfortunately, because of stressors (bullying ) in there own enviroment, some blossom with confidence and this is mirrored in there skill and abilities.It is important to keep them grounded and in touch with there experience.

All to often elite athletes lose touch with there innerself and propagate the sport identity. When that ego is dinted, moreoften than not, you will see a run of poor performance, this is the majority.. identity crisis. Dont know wether freud would concur.

Hi Anthony. The biopsychosocial model is a little different but you are right it is from the same line of thinking. The main point is that approaches like this that involve the environment (and not just tacked on) and the individual AND the interaction between them are stronger than individual only approaches. Even though they are gaining popularity they are still fairly under investigated. I may be wrong but I think lifestyle physical activity is the biggest area using this approach in sport and exercise psychology, then exercise and i've seen much less on sport, so more is needed. Interesting question Tadhg and one that could be very useful in theoretical and practical settings.

Commentary from the Division of Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, PSI attached ...may shed light on question.

Some issues were flagged today in Irish Independent

Some issues were flagged today in Irish Independent: http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/gaa-has-big-role-to-play-on-mental-health-issue-29790757.html

From a clinical perspective, my colleagues and I recently examined the prevelence of major depressive episodes in relation to failed sport performance. Using diagnostic interviews we found the prevalence of depression among elite athletes was higher than what has been previously reported and susceptibility to depression increased following a failed performance. Although this is just one example, the PSI document highlights a a number of other important characteristics inherent to elite sport that may serve as stressors contributing to mental health concerns. See Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine 2013 Vol 23. Iss 4. P 273-277. Hopefully this helps - Tom.

The issues are understandably and the plethora of findings on concussion and depression are not entirely unrelated (see link). Stakeholders are addressing some of the challenges -NATA Releases Consensus Statement for Developing a Plan

to Recognize and Refer Student Athletes with Psychological Concerns at the Collegiate Level ( http://www.nata.org/News%20Release/nata-releases-consensus-statement-developing-plan-recognize-and-refer-student-athletes-). However, both preventative mental health strategies and positive mental health appear to be off the radar in high performance.

http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1555584

Hi everyone

Similar to Anthony, I am familiar to the sports environment. If you don't mind I'll throw my hat into the ring and give you a view from someone who has a psychology background and a relatively high demanding sport background, where I have recently quit playing inter-county Gaelic Football due to injury and have spent a lot of time thinking about my own experiences during this time.

My current role requires me to work with individuals with addictive behaviours (Smoking, gambling, drug/alcohol abuse). Anything I do is of course evidence based and I find some models quite useful in addressing these issues, such as the TTM. Recently I tend to focus primarily on habit formation while keeping in mind the Biopsychosocial contributions to health. Although my work is with regular people, I have also been spending a lot more of my time on athletes and habit formation related to their lifestyle.

From my own sporting experience, I would say that being an athlete is all about habits because they spend all their time practising, hence gaining ability by making their sequence of movements more automatic. The careful nature of planned deliberative movements is transferred to a much more impulsive level so that they can focus on techniques of their sports practice, without having to give attention to the basic stuff. That, for me, is the central aspect of habits in athletes. Studies have demonstrated that up to 45% of our daily behaviour among regular individuals is habitual - the figure no doubt would be much higher for an athlete.

Mental health issues among athletes I feel can also lead to further problems. Unfortunately we are starting to see a lot more about gambling issues, and I feel athletes lifestyle issues are becoming more of a concern than their on-field performances. There are multiple explanations for this, where genetic basis is believe to be one reason, but psychiatric symptoms is also linked to uptake of addictive behaviours. I know this because of my work as a smoking cessation specialist - where it is believed that up to 60% of people who smoke report a past of current history (ever history) of a mental health diagnosis.

Awareness of how to address habits is also important, and its really not that complex. The framework is pretty straightforward, and teaching people how adjust/modify behaviour can be effective. It can be done by the individual themselves after a little support, so long as confidence and motivation levels are right.

It was Interesting and encouraging to see there is more being done for athletes with regards to mental health problems. I have seen that the Gaelic Players Association has seen the number of players accessing their counselling service treble in the past year. http://bit.ly/18OlMZT - I think this is similar to your link Tadgh but I couldn't open it unfortunately!?

Go easy on me here - but from my point of view, if mental health issues among athletes are not addressed, because of their repetitive lifestyles and the stressors they are exposed to from a sporting demand, they are at risk of negative mental health consequences.

Hi

This is a great area.

We have run three Special Issues of the international and multidisciplinary journal, 'Reflective Practice' on some aspects of this. Please write to me at the following address and I'll forward some pdfs for you.

[email protected]

Also have a look at the research work from Lane 4 on HPE's.

Tony

Thanks I will check out the SI. The question remains on what is the most effective approach to dealing with the issues presented (or given the symptom averse sample in sport). Positive psychology and resilience training may offer an efficient and effective approach. See Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program.

A new forum is available for research activity on this topic-Frontiers research topic on Mental Health Challenges in Elite Sport

A growing research base suggests that the high performance environment has the potential to be a risky domain for many elite performers. This evidence has accumulated across disparate topics relating to elite sport including eating disorders among males, post-event depression, stigma towards accessing service provision in psychology and the emergence of organizational stress as a catalyst for mental health challenges in sport systems. At present, while it is challenging to quantify the precise extent and nature of the problem it is critical that stakeholders in high performance sport become aware of the current trend. This research topic addresses this problem of mental health challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective. We welcome a broad range of empirical and conceptual and review submissions including case studies, single cohort investigations, meta-analytic and narrative reviews, and commentaries.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/4208/mental-health-challenges-in-elite-sport-balancing-risk-with-reward

Looking forward to reading this article. Extremely important area of practice and applied research!

See the research topic we developed which will conclude soon with 20 articles on the topic. Thanks for your interest.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/researchtopic/4208/mental-health-challenges-in-elite-sport-balancing-risk-with-reward