Athletes in mind

Contact point for mental health in competitive sports

Intuitively and medially conveyed, one usually associates top athletes with the image of a high-performance, resilient and mentally strong person.

This image is slowly beginning to change and become more multifaceted - not least because of athletes like Michael Phelps, Naomi Osaka or Simone Biles, who courageously speak about their emotional stress, as well as the educational work of institutions such as the Robert Enke Foundation, the Sports psychiatry department of the DGPPN and MentalGestärkt.

Current research results show that mental disorders are as common in competitive athletes as in the normal population - some diseases such as eating disorders and depression are even significantly more common in some sports.

Mental strength in athletic competition is therefore not to be equated with mental health. In this way, many athletes are able to achieve top athletic performance in a nutshell, even in spite of mental disorders.

It goes without saying that we socially have a high level of understanding for the physical demands and stresses of competitive athletes. In contrast to this, however, awareness of the emotional stresses associated with competitive sport is less widespread: For example, increasing professionalism and medialization as well as risky situations such as pressure to perform, injuries, the end of a career or experiences of failure.

In addition, it is becoming clear again and again that many athletes, out of ignorance or fear of stigmatization and unpleasant consequences, tend to suppress their problems, hide them or seek professional help too late - sometimes with fatal consequences such as drop-outs, chronification, critical escalation and suicides .

We want to de-stigmatize, connect and support resources
For mental performance and Health in competitive sports

We are working on the establishment and further development of the website www.athletes-in-mind.de, which is intended to be a contact point for athletes and their environment who are interested in mental health in competitive sports and / or who need sports psychiatric and psychotherapeutic help.

The website should:

- Provide an attractive, sport-specific source of information on the subject of mental health, mental illness and how to deal with challenging situations
- Present prevention strategies
- Show ways to offer support
- Destigmatizing and encouraging through experience reports from athletes who report on their difficult phases in life and how they dealt with them
- Inform free of charge and individually about suitable offers of help and, if necessary, also help anonymously to establish contact with sports psychiatrists and sports psychotherapists