Mental Health is a Team Sport
In Tokyo, Olympians are showing us that taking care of our mental health is a group effort. When Simone Biles needed to protect her mental health, her gymnastics teammates stepped up to support her. Biles said she was inspired by tennis player Naomi Osaka to put her mental health before competition. Michael Phelps, the record-holding Olympic medalist, spoke to NBC Sports, reminding us that we are all in this together:
Watch the full conversation with Michael Phelps on YouTube
“I feel like I’m alone sometimes, like I’m the only one who can ever go through something like this. But, it’s not the case. There are millions of people [who] are going through the same exact thing that I do. Or, the same exact thing that Simone goes through, the same exact thing Naomi Osaka, Kevin Love, all these athletes [do]. People are standing up and talking about it left and right, and that’s what we need. We need more of that.”
While we aren’t all world-class athletes, we can all practice being teammates to support the mental health of those around us.
Teamwork can go a long way to improve our mental wellness and can make us more successful:
People who play team sports are less likely to experience anxiety and depression than people in individual sports, and they are also less likely to experience anxiety and depression than the general population, according to a study from the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine.
Even if you’ve never played sports before, we are all teammates in different areas of our lives. Here are some expert recommendations of ways to practice teamwork:
• Volunteering is a great way to get involved in your community and work closely with others on a project you care about. Volunteering has both mental and physical health benefits, according to Mayo Clinic Health System. You can check out volunteering opportunities near you at VolunteerMatch.org
• Playing cooperative board games can improve teamwork skills, as well as thinking skills and creativity. A small study used board games to improve teamwork among a group of students.
• Focusing on shared goals, big or small, helps build teamwork. Shared goals can bring us together to work toward something you and others care about.
How to be a good mental health teammate:
When it comes to giving someone all of the mental health help they need, none of us can do it all. Take some time to consider what skills you can contribute to supporting those around you.
It’s also important to consider what kind of support is most helpful for you to receive, when you need it. Knowing what you do and don’t want in a crisis will help you communicate with your support system.
Having conversations with friends and family about what role you can play can help prepare you to be the best mental health teammate you can be. If you feel like you don’t have the vocabulary to talk about mental health confidently, you’re not the only one. Here are some useful phrases Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Michael Phelps have modeled for your next chat:
• “We have triggers, and unfortunately I had one of my biggest ones here,” Biles said of her experience at the Olympics.
• “I do hope that people can relate and understand it’s O.K. to not be O.K., and it’s O.K. to talk about it. There are people who can help, and there is usually light at the end of any tunnel,” Osaka writes in her Time essay.
• “I have to give myself more love and more compassion,” Phelps told ESPN during the pandemic.
We can easily fill these phrases with our own experiences. When we find ourselves experiencing a triggering moment, we can follow Biles’s example to communicate that, whatever that trigger is. And we can use similar words to grant compassion and patience to others when their mental health isn’t at its best.
As the Olympics come to an end, the conversation around mental health needs to live on, and you are a part of it.