The View From Here – Let’s Talk About Mental Health

Simone Biles just pulled out of the Olympic games to focus on her mental health and it didn’t happen without people attacking her online for doing so.  I don’t understand that.  An article I read says we should be applauding her for standing up for herself and protecting herself.  She showed the world that mental health IS physical health and that you cannot protect one without priotizing the other, and sometimes the best gymnastics move you can make is waking away and putting yourself first.  And that’s what she did.

A post I read on Facebook shares the enormous pressure these athletes are under on a regular day, in a regular year.

“These 2021 Games are a mental health nightmare.

In the 21 years working with athletes at Olympic games, I’ve never seen more stress/anxiety. (The individual sport athletes are having the hardest time behind the scenes.)

…..If you’re seeing some of the most mentally tough, focused, and disciplined people on the planet fall prey to ‘pressure.’

What about the regular Joe’s and Jane’s of society…that don’t have the same level of skill at coping with the toxic levels of opinion, rhetoric, and hateful commentary online.

The antidote is always the same… be more kind.”   Todd Herman – Facebook

This is the 2020 Olympics in 2021.  A pandemic.  No crowds.  No fans cheering. No family support as they compete.

And you’ve got your country expecting you to bring home the gold medal because of how good you’ve done in the past.  That is pressure.

I’m not gymnast or Olympic athlete, but you have to realize that any sport requires concentration.  With gymnastics, mental health is incredibly important.  You HAVE to be focused or you can seriously injure yourself.

Simone said in the morning practice she had a little bit of the twisties.  Which sounds like a cute little term, but actually, it’s the scariest thing for a gymnast.  Your brain loses track of where you are in the air.  It’s dangerous and can lead to injury.  So she stopped.  She pulled herself out of the games.

She said “After the performance that I did I didn’t want to go into any of the other events second-guessing myself, so I thought it was better if I took a step back and let these girls go out there and do the job, and they did just that.  I was struggling with some things.”

She went on to say “We have to focus on ourselves, because at the end of the day we’re human, too.  We have to protect our mind and our body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do.”

USA Gymnastics said it supported her decision “wholeheartedly,” adding in its statement that Biles would be assessed every day.

Mental health matters.  And it is just as important as physical health and one can’t be good without the other.

And if you want to support the athletes – as Todd suggests in his post – “If you do watch the Olympic games, tweet or comment to the 8th place person that they’re inspiring, not just the gold medalist. Send a message to the person that didn’t even make it to the final heat, that you appreciate all the effort they put in to getting to the Olympics, and thanks for making our country or your country proud. These athletes are getting bombarded with some pretty mean stuff because they ‘let an entire nation down.’

At the end of the day we’re all human.  We need kindness. Simone Biles – you are amazing.   We wish you the very best.

Categorised in: Afternoons, Uncategorized

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan