How to Cope With Depression in Sports

Footballers often get knee Sprain or clavicle fracture injuries. And it takes some time to recover. Both physical and mental effort is required to get normal. When dealing with such cases, depression can be both an antecedent to and a result of injury. When a gymnast is not performing up to the mark, the reason behind it could be the symptoms of depression. Because of that, his or her concentration is lacking, skill is utilized awkwardly, leading to a serious injury. Here in this write-up, we will try to learn how to cope with depression successfully.

What is Depression?

Many people suffer from this common and serious medical illness called Depression. It negatively affects your thinking and feelings and how you act. But don’t worry it can be treated with some real effort. Depression gets you into a state where feelings of sadness or a loss of interest in life activities overtakes. It can lead to a reduction in your optimum ability to deliver due to a variety of emotional and physical problems.

Reasons for Depression

When an athlete is unable to transfer practice or training success into reality because of too-high expectations, this leads to decreased performance. Feeling worthless can lead to mistakes, which can turn into anxiety and depression.

The Michael Phelps Case

Michael Phelps, one of the most successful Olympic athletes of all time once said on a popular podcast that he had been severely depressed several times over his career and even intended to suicide after the 2012 Olympic Games.

Applying Discounts To Save

Depression is a multifold illness that can have different impacts due to different reasons on different persons. You may require to undertake several steps as part of coping with it. This could be buying different products like exercising machines or simple indoor games or sports kit etc. For this saving through online discount codes is a very good idea according to your personal requirements at times of need.

Depression Outcomes

Depressions result in both sorts of extreme conditions;  

  • Drop-in enjoyment or lack of interest or pleasure in activities
  • Feeling sad or staying in a depressed mood
  • Weight loss or gain due to Appetite change
  • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
  • Loss of energy
  • Increase in purposeless physical activity or slowed movements or speech
  • Feeling worthless or Guiltiness
  • Unimaginative and difficulty in thinking or concentrating or making decisions
  • Thoughts of death or suicide

Causes of Depression in Sports

Sports is an activity that involves both dynamism and challenge handling with accuracy and with a debonair goal in mind. As commercialization enters every phase of life, the love of the game has been lost in any sport. Today Sports is fast-paced, with high-stakes, outcome-based, and social media hype. Athletes today are under increased pressure due to external stressors, and the expectations of others. So what are the mental health challenges faced by an athlete or sportsperson. Let see one by one; 

Perfectly Robot

What this means actually; when we are wooing a team or a player to win always, we forget that they are also humans and can’t do everything right all the time. This creates unrealistic expectations and leads to problems like overtraining and the inability to transfer the practice or training success bit to the actual competition because of very high expectations.  Feeling valueless and like a failure and what if any mistakes are made can lead to anxiety and depression.

Fear of Failure

The fear to lose or be below the par often leads sports people to come under pressure and thus often underperform rather than over perform. As they are in the eyes of everyone like parents, coaches, teammates, fans, the media, or the general population, they get intimidated. 

Injuries a real test

Often players don’t perform well after they return from injury and this is due to the expectation bit and their reliance on physical fitness which may not be 100 %. Also, the feeling if he or she will ever again “feel back to normal,” then returning to play and the fear of re-injury can create a great deal of stress.

Lifestyle

Sportspeople are supposed to be vigilant about their health and lifestyle as a regular part. Ignoring it can lead to non-proactiveness and sleep problems, diet issues, and recovery from previous activity, balancing commitments, and social connections. 

Success Maintenance

This means an athlete can be a success but the fear of maintaining it. Can create depression or pressure to keep it at the same. Although counter-intuitive, the fear of success is real. It’s not easy to bear the responsibilities and commitments that come with being successful. If you are at the number one position or a role model, the fear of success is even more and can lead to bigger depression.

Coping with Depression

As mental health continues to be an important issue for athletes, so how to cope with depression effectively is a challenge. 

Professional Counselling

The foremost thing to do is to take professional counseling. There are numerous sports organizations and institutions offering such services.

Addiction

Do not use alcohol or drugs to cope with stress issues.

Positive Social Support

Gain positive Social support and meet new people who are optimistic and fun.

Live in the Present

Keep creating positive vibes with what you have and don’t focus too much on the future or try to remember the past.

Be Creative

Yes be creative by taking up by side something like writing, art, meditating, breathing, yoga, music, massage, and other relaxation techniques.

A Different Recreation

Engage yourself in a lighter activity like playing, table tennis, Carom or simply relax.

Sleep Well

Try to sleep appropriately as its slackness causes many physical and mental issues.

Nutrition

One of the best ideas, eat a balanced diet and make sure you get the right nutrients for performance.

Humour

Laughter is the best medicine, as they say, stay close to it.

Volunteer

Go outside and help others to seek the peace of mind

Your Thoughts and Actions

Remember you control your thoughts and they turn into action or effort

Triggers

Keep a check on yourself; what are your positive triggers, what lessens your stress or anxiety? If you know what triggers your negative feelings, you can begin to cultivate skills to eliminate, replace or minimize them. 

Summing it up

So to how to cope with depression, requires that you know what depression is, its causes, and types. Hopefully, you have understood it and will do the needful.

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