A Game Changer For Mental Health Essay

A recent study by The American College of Sports Medicine discovered that a whopping 35% of athletes regularly struggle with disordered eating, burnout, depression and/or anxiety. This number has only increased in recent years, and is becoming more evident with athletes bringing their mental health struggles to light. The article “A Game Changer for Mental Health: Sports Icons Open Up,” explains first hand accounts of some famous athletes who are struggling, and brings light to those who may doubt that one’s mental health is really “that bad”. The use of professional opinions, first-hand accounts from athletes struggling with mental health, and the use of emotional appeal are what makes the article “A game changer for mental health: sports

A majority of the article ties in personal experiences from famous athletes like Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Will Heininger. The website which the article was retrieved from, the University of Michigan Health, uses their own Will Heininger as an example. Heininger was a football player on a “legendary” Michigan Football team, while also fighting his own battle off the field with depression.While many athletes in the collegiate football world are only seen as athletes, they are always students first at their respective universities. Heininger gives a great example of how athletes can fall short academically, in response to poor mental health. He says “you need (blank) to function successfully as a student-athlete. If your (blank) isn’t functioning properly, it will be more difficult to get to class, learn the material, perform on tests, succeed in your sport and so on.” He follows this observation with possible entrants for the blank in these sentences, which is when one can truly realize the difference between student-athletes' resources for their physical and mental health. When the blank is filled with terms such as hamstring or knee, they have an army behind them of physical therapists who are there at a moment's notice to mend their pain. “When the word that fills the blank is your brain, we believe you deserve the exact same kind of guidance, support and care you would get if it were any other part of your body.” The perspective on why an athlete needs these kinds of resources is more credible because it is coming first-hand from a student-athlete who struggled. There is a reason that athletes are often criticized in the media for dropping out of the spotlight to focus on the betterment of their mental health, and that is because one could also argue that the persuasion of mental health to someone who has never struggled with it is a bridge with an