Athletic Injuries Can Increase Psychiatric Risk

by Kristi Caporoso

Athletics are an integral part of American life. We watch sports on TV, we play sports in school, and we hear about athletes on the news. Doctors encourage us to lead an active and healthy life, and our parents encourage us to get involved in extracurricular activities such as sports teams. However, is there a downside to being an athlete? Research is showing that while being an athlete, either professional or student, can be a good experience, there are dangers that come along with it.
Sports injuries, which unfortunately aren't too uncommon, can severely increase the risk of psychiatric problems among athletes. A college baseball player with a broken wrist is much more likely to develop a form of depression or anxiety than a non-athlete with a broken wrist. There are numerous reasons for this increased risk. To start, it is difficult for an athlete to even admit to having a physical or psychiatric problem, because they are afraid that it will affect their placement on the team. This underreporting leads to an athlete being more likely to hold in his problems until they are at a dangerous level. Athletes are under immense pressure to play through pain and carry on, even though this may not be what's truly best for them.
Being an athlete is also a pervasive characteristic, one that usually consumes a person's identity. For this reason, when athletes get injured and are unable to perform, they are more likely to experience a loss of identity and severe distress. Most people develop skills and social networks across many contexts, but a highly talented athlete in most cases focuses his life on his sport. Therefore, when this is lost, they themselves feel lost. The more dedicated and more successful the athlete, the more likely their risk is for psychiatric problems. Experiencing an injury or narrowly avoiding one can lead to severe distress in an athelete because it has such severe consequences for them. Because of this, many athletes have experienced PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) after an injury or close call.
For many athletes, their sport is their means of relieving stress. Take their sport away, and you are eliminating their one mean of coping with their issues. This in turn makes it more likely that they will have no way to cope, and stress and depression will be harder to overcome and deal with. Many of the issues that they had but were able to avoid by playing sports are brought to light.
When dealing with athletes, especially those who are injured, it is important to evaluate how important a factor athletics are in their life, and if they have any other networks that they are connected to for both socialization and stress relieval.

source: Samantha O'Connell & Theo Manschreck, Current Psychiatry