A thread on disguised mental health issues in athletes...
#MentalHealthMatters #SaturdayThoughts
Audience: sport psychologists, performance consultants, athletes
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Most athletes come into the office of a sport psychologist or consultant wanting to improve their performance - but it is common to find out later that an athlete is struggling with more difficulties than originally thought
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In the @TOPPatUNLV program, we found that almost all athletes came in the door for a performance issue, but 78% had a mental health diagnosis - 78%!!!
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Gardner & Moore state, "consultants who ...assume that the client would certainly note greater concerns if they were present might find out 3 weeks later that the client has more concerns than were originally stated." AND...
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"The consultant cannot automatically assume these issues do not exist, resist asking the important questions, or wait for the client to mention greater concerns."
ESPECIALLY bc of athletes who walked in the door for performance, 78% had a diagnosable mental health concern
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And that doesn't include any concern that breaches mental health but is considered "subthreshold" - still needs to be addressed and treated by licensed MH provider
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Clinicians, ask the hard questions. Screen athletes for mental health concerns. And not just the diagnostic questions. You need to have a strong working understanding of the cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physiological processes underlying the athletes' functioning.
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Otherwise, we are blindly picking skills that we "think" might help, instead of mapping them to processes. Otherwise, the athlete coming to us in trust and confidence, might not get what they need or deserve.
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