|
Special
Report: Pushed to the limit
Athletes
face immense pressure to perform well, but when the stress becomes
too much, most colleges are ill-equipped to help
By Scott
Howard-Cooper - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am
PDT Sunday, October 8, 2006
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1
The
Bee's Scott Howard-Cooper can be reached at mailto:showard-cooper@sacbee.com
Steve Masten died like so many of the others.
Alone while part of a team, feeling extremes of frustration while
accomplishing so much, his end came on the morning of April 24 in
Sparks, Nev., with a gun in his hand, pointed at his head. He was
in the living room of his family home.
Gary Powers, the baseball coach at the University of Nevada, Reno, later
would describe his young pitcher as an upbeat personality who fit
in well with the team and was solid academically. The coach saw a
mature 18-year-old who accepted the traditional, diminished role
of freshmen in the program with an understanding smile.
Never, Powers said, did Masten seem troubled, let alone in a desperate
place.
Masten's final words, though, insisted otherwise. Detectives for the Washoe
County Sheriff's Office, in ruling the death self-inflicted,
determined that the teenager had been depressed for some time,
based largely on a suicide note that mentioned baseball as a cause
of despair.
In that aspect, Masten became tragically common, a college athlete lost to
severe depression and suicide who university officials said never
showed signs of any problems.
In interviews with dozens of psychologists, school administrators, coaches,
parents and athletes nationally over six months, The Bee found
that most universities are ill-prepared to deal with college
athletes in emotional crises, and many rely on systems that often
become an impediment to treatment.
Sometimes, as in the case of Masten, universities don't realize their
shortcomings until too late.
No one knows how many college athletes kill themselves each year: not the
National Collegiate Athletic Association, which as the governing
body for university sports ordinarily charts critical issues; not
the schools themselves, which often promise blanket support for
all an athlete's problems during recruiting pitches.
Experts say that having mental-health professionals dedicated at least part
time to a college's athletic program makes athletes far more
likely to seek help if emotional problems arise. Such programs
also are far more likely to have written guidelines for coaches
and athletes to identify problems and ways to seek help.
But of roughly 1,200 member-schools in the NCAA, only about 25 have
mental-health professionals dedicated at least part time to
athletes. Among California universities, the University of
California, Davis, is one of only two schools with such a
dedicated position.
Chris Carr, whose extensive résumé as a sports psychologist includes work
with Purdue and Indiana universities, estimates that 50 Division I
athletes attempt suicide each year, out of some 156,000 athletes
playing for major collegiate schools. Sam Maniar, a sports
psychologist at Ohio State, the only university to study mental
health issues involving college athletes, suggests there are far
more attempts each year.
Sandra Nevis, the training director of psychological counseling services at
California State University, Sacramento, said of student-athletes
facing emotional and mental problems: "They do face unique
circumstances. They're a unique subculture, and yet we see them as
a strength on campus. But they are very vulnerable."
Only Ohio State has studied college athletes and depression -- and that
study was limited to 299 athletes on its campus.
At a time when the National Center for Health Statistics lists suicide as
the third-leading cause of death among Americans ages 19 to 22 (in
school or not), experts say they have no data to suggest college
athletes are more or less likely than other classmates to take
their own lives or battle severe depression.
Psychologists on college campuses do agree, however, that athletes face
unique hurdles to counseling and may be discouraged from seeking
any help at all.
The assumption that athletes are supposed to be tough and able to withstand
physical and mental pain can make it difficult for some to admit
they need help.
"In the athletic culture, it's not OK to have mental-health
concerns," said William Parham, who worked with teams at UCLA
for 21 years before becoming the dean of the Graduate School of
Professional Psychology at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant
Hill. "Mental health concerns are put on the back burner in
the athlete's world."
Added Carr, "Ninety-nine percent of the athletes I counsel, when they
begin to cry, they apologize."
Athletes do not necessarily have a tougher road than other students in an
emotional crisis -- just a dramatically different one.
First, mistakes are magnified. An athlete's gaffe is witnessed by hundreds
at the most minor of events and by millions at schools on national
television.
And athletes often are too well known on campus to seek counseling without
someone noticing. At most universities, athletes seeking
counseling would be required to make an appointment and then sit
in the waiting room of the college's student-health center. Some
athletes interviewed by The Bee acknowledged their reluctance to
seek help for fear any visit to the health center would spark
gossip on campus.
Injuries, so common to athletes, can be an added burden to someone
struggling emotionally. And medication to treat an injury can
complicate mental-health issues, a particular risk if an athlete
has not told a trainer or team physician about drugs prescribed by
a psychologist or psychiatrist.
Finally, the concept of failure is staggering. The heavily recruited high
school star who picks the highest level of college competition --
Division I -- often does not play as a freshman and may have a
minimal role as a sophomore. To the athlete whose identity is
based on sports, that transition can be overwhelming.
A survey by the Ohio State University Sports Medicine Center of 299 athletes
over three school years, 2000-01 to 2002-03, found that 13.9
percent of the athletes were diagnosed with a "major
depressive disorder." The survey ranked variations of
depression, such as bipolar disorder, separately.
The Ohio State study, while credible, covers one institution. So when Mary
Wilfert, the NCAA's associate director of education services, is
asked if the sports national governing body has been slow to react
to the problem, she responded: "I have no way to know that.
We haven't done any surveys of our schools on this topic.
"There traditionally has not been outreach for athletes on this issue.
The athlete has been isolated in some ways. ... All across the
spectrum, the counseling does not meet the needs of the athlete
and (his or her) schedule," Wilfert said.
Several articles in the nationally distributed NCAA newsletter have
addressed the topic, and the organization last year hosted 20
sports psychologists to hear their concerns. Those efforts have
earned the NCAA mostly positive marks from experts.
Still, the NCAA has been unwilling or unable to set national guidelines for
emotional care in the same way it regulates things such as
academic standards, the amount of time a team can practice or when
and how a coach can recruit. Each athletic department decides for
itself whether to provide mental health awareness training to its
staff members.
Advocates for suicide prevention say university officials need to encourage
their staffs, coaches and trainers to promote asking for help as a
sign of strength and maturity. That begins by changing perceptions
about mental illness and depression, especially among coaches,
experts said.
"If you're having an issue and you go to your coach and say, 'Coach,
I'm not playing well because I'm depressed, I need to get help,'
you're not going to get help," said Brian Quinnett, a former
Washington State University basketball standout who is now the
national training director at the suicide prevention group QPR
Institute.
"You're risking your playing time, you're risking your job on the
team," Quinnett said. "It's not the kind of thing a lot
of coaches handle well."
At most universities, if an athletic department employs a psychologist to
help athletes, it is a "sports psychologist" who works
with mental aspects along the lines of building confidence or
teaching a basketball player to visualize making the free throw in
the closing seconds.
"There are definitely people out there calling themselves sports
psychologists who aren't (certified) psychologists," Maniar
said.
Furthermore, experienced psychologists say if they are part of a sports
program that allows them to have regular contact with teams,
athletes are more likely to feel comfortable approaching them with
any problems.
Ron Chamberlain, a psychologist at Brigham Young University since 1996, said
he considers it an advantage to have an office in a building
athletes frequent. Similarly, the three Ohio State psychologists
affiliated with the athletic department are in the same complex as
the trainers and team physicians, making it common for them to
interact with athletes.
While Carr's sports psychology practice is in Indianapolis, he has an office
about 65 miles away at Purdue in the same building that is home to
many school teams.
Some schools introduce a psychologist or counselor to each team as part of
the first day of practice or preseason physical, and distribute
contact information.
But these schools are the exception.
"I think the lack of resources is a legitimate concern for
universities," Carr said. "But I also know that if they
make getting lights for a stadium or something like that a
priority, it would happen. To me, it's more about priority than
having the resources or not."
Consider that among the 25 or so schools that do employ such programs, one
of the most recent to join the list was Denver University, a
school with just 4,500 undergraduate students and 17 sports
programs.
UC Riverside hired a psychologist to provide outreach to athletes in 1997,
and has maintained that position as budgets tighten.
James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., hired Wendy Borlabi to devote
half her time to the athletic department in 2005 -- about 16 1/2
years after Dan Haycock, struggling to make an impact as a pitcher
and recently arrested for driving while intoxicated, went to the
baseball field and shot himself. The athletic director at the time
was quoted in the local paper as saying it was hard to believe the
game could have been so important to Haycock.
The counseling center at Western Kentucky University has prepared a synopsis
of warning signs for athletes in distress for the athletic
department, and James Madison University posted a lengthy plan on
its athletic Web site for crisis intervention, including a flow
chart showing who calls whom in an emergency and the role each
person plays.
But for most colleges, such plans don't exist.
"Denial may be a good word for it," said Gary Bennett, a
psychologist at Virginia Tech. "There is a minimalization of
the problem out there in some places because they haven't had to
deal with it at their school yet.
"I would hope that word of mouth would spread, that there are several
options out there for student- athletes, whether they have an
eating disorder or an emotional crisis. But it seems like word is
spreading pretty slowly at this point."
SIGNS OF
DEPRESSION (side bar of newspaper article)
Warning signs that
a college athlete may be in distress:
Changes in
sleeping habits
Difficulty
sleeping or excessive sleeping for several days in a row is an
indication of a problem.
Changes in eating
habits
Sudden weight loss
or gain, or talking more than usual about weight may be signs of
using food to deal with stress.
Drug and alcohol
abuse
Excessive use is a
clear sign of at least a substance-abuse problem and possibly
severe distress.
Withdrawing from
social contact
Athletes who spend
less time than usual with teammates, who are not visiting family
and friends as often, and who spend less time talking to coaches
might be pulling away from social contact as a result of a
developing depression.
Decreased
interest in activities that had been enjoyable
Students at risk
may begin to give up listening to their favorite music, working
out, dating or lose interest in their sport.
Talking
excessively about death
Talking more about
death or exhibiting a fascination with death is an indication of a
problem.
Frequent
complaints of fatigue or injury
Headaches and
stomachaches are common symptoms, and unspecific pain or fatigue
is often reported by distressed athletes.
Problems focusing
Athletes in crisis
have such a hard time concentrating that even simple drills are
hard to master.
Loss or change of
emotion
Some who suffer
from depression might become more animated and laugh at
inappropriate times or become more upset and tearful than usual.
Increased
irritability
Depressed people
often sabotage what is good in their lives, so the athlete may
start losing events, not executing plays or angering teammates. In
general, suicide can be the ultimate act of anger in addition to
an attempt to end suffering, a final lashing out.
Source: Western
Kentucky University Counseling and Testing Services
Nathan Alan Eisert Foundation, Inc.
|
