Taboo subject For a long time among athletes, depression gradually comes out of the shadows. More and more people say they know they feel bad, also a sign of better management of psychological problems, something necessary to go through a covid-19 that does not seem to go away in the short term.
French swimmer Béryl Gastaldello, 25, entered a severe depression in 2018. “I fell very, very low. I no longer had any control over my body. They prescribed me medications, “he confided a few months ago. This testimony of an athlete in the middle of her career, with options to participate in the Toki Olympicsor, it’s still pretty weird.
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The Australian tennis player Nick Kyrgios, 25, recently revealed his “sad and lonely situation” while battling depression caused by the overwhelming pace of the ATP circuit.
The American basketball player Kevin Love he also made his anxiety and depression public. But most of the time it is once retired when the athletes count their fall, such as the Olympic multi-medalist Michael Phelps.
“They have been very open, the athletes agree to speak a little more than they feel, they are human, not robots,” he explained to AFP Cecilia Delage, a sports psychologist, who follows Lens footballers but also jumpers and skiers.
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“Elite sports don’t especially rhyme with mental health,” recalls Makis Chamalidis, also a sports psychologist. “Feeling on a mission,” they can be “at the extremes” and go from the “omnipotence” of winning to the “‘I’m lousy'” of failure, he explains.
The end of a career or an injury that lasts for a long time can also be difficult times. At INSEP, a French institute of sport and performance, where potential champions grow up, the team of psychologists has increased in recent years.
“We have more and more requests for support from athletes with a double dimension: psychological and performance aid,” he explains Anaëlle Malberbe, one of the five psychologists.
“Coaches are more open about this issue,” he says. “The brake is: ‘you are a high-level athlete, you have no right to fail’. That is false,” he describes.
The rugby New Zealander John Kirwan, who suffered from depression, gave the title of his book: “The All Blacks do not cry.” Anxiety disorders, depressive episodes, eating behavior problems, addictions … “the athlete can find the same problems as everyone else”, explains Malherbe.
Within the population, one person in five suffers or will suffer from depression in their lifetime. Since 2006, elite athletes have done one psychological interview per year, two if they are minors, as part of their medical follow-upO.
Risk of overtraining
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Are there sports that are more psychologically tough? “There are sports where there is a strong training load, such as swimming, gymnastics, table tennis,” he explains. Malherbe, with a risk of “overtraining”, the variant of ‘burn out’ or professional burnout among athletes.
“Hitting a ball is not the same as counting the tiles when you swim 15 km a day,” Chamalidis deepens, evoking the “loneliness” of “repetition sports.” The french swimmer Yannick Agnel, victim of a ‘burn out‘he said last year that he regretted not benefiting from sufficient psychological support.
“In football, there are many players and few places, we find young people who invest too much in their practice and do not get it,” he also details Delage.
A positive point, she says, is the fact that sports psychologists are now “identified as a necessity and integrated into the ‘staff'”, which allows prevention.
Chamalidis he also mentions the busy life of the coaches, “who travel a lot, far from their families, squeezed like lemons (…)” resulting in “a personal life that is not always very balanced.”
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With the crisis of covid-19, professional athletes have been put to the test. Since the end of November, Malherbe observed “more minor depressive problems” among athletes, like the rest of the population, due to competitions with irregular periodicity, a “limited social bond” and perhaps family members affected by the virus.
AFP
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