Elite athletes like Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, and Kevin Love ignored mental health warning signs until they hit a crisis. Early recognition of anxiety and panic can help athletes seek help before a breakdown forces them out of competition.
Yeah, I think, unfortunately, it comes down often to an athlete being in. I'll call it like, a performance crisis. Okay. We saw this kind of recently in. In the Olympics with, let's see, Naomi Osaka and the tennis player Simone Biles. The gymnast, where they were, like, literally paralyzed, kind of had to drop out. So sometimes it will be that sort of performance crisis where an athlete finds themselves in a slump and they're like, I need to do something, because I got no answers here. I don't know what's going on. There may have been red flags or indications before that, but athletes are really good at toughing it out and sometimes being in denial. I'm fine. I got this right. Another athlete comes to mind. Kevin Love of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball had a panic attack on the court. On court in the middle of the game and had to leave, go to locker room. So that was how he got help. So oftentimes it can be that moment where it's like, all right, big drama. But hopefully with more education and normalization of mental health, that athletes can get help sooner. And they realize, like, God, my anxiety level is really way too high here. Maybe I should be proactive and check it out.
