How many of us have not experienced that cold sensation slowly slinking up our insides? The heart sinking, goose bumps on the flesh – leaving us with that familiar feeling of helpless and powerless. For most of us, the stakes are low. For tennis player Mardy Fish who played his last match at the ongoing US Open, it came at the worst of times – three years ago, he suffered an anxiety attack before a fourth round clash with Roger Federer at the US Open. He was unable to go through with the match.
For three years, Fish was out of tennis. But he refused to fade away. He confronted his inner demons, making a triumphant return to Flushing Meadows this year. In an evocative, heart-touching piece published in The Players Tribune, Fish is frank about how anxiety had affected his life:
Although he bowed out in the second round on Wednesday, Fish’s is an inspiring story – a story of a man who was not afraid to publicly acknowledge his anxiety issues in a world where sporting stars are invariably put on a pedestal surrounded by adoring fans and any talk of mental frailty is a symbol of weakness. But, sports psychologists admit that anxiety and other mental issues are part and parcel of every sportsperson’s life – the only caveat being that athletes are afraid to recognise it.
“It is a symptom of the social desirability phenomenon,” said Reena Kaul, a sports psychologist at the Sports Authority of India. “Every sportsman at every level of the game is anxious about their performances, but they try to hide it. They want acceptance at the highest level so they don’t portray anxiety.”
Across the field
In every major sport, cases abound of athletes struggling with mental issues. In cricket, Marcus Trescothick’s case is probably the most well-documented ‒ the talented English opener suffered from stress and depression throughout his career, vividly depicted in his autobiography Coming Back To Me. There is the example also of Jonathan Trott, who was forced to leave a tour of Australia in 2013 due to a combination of stress and anxiety issues. Like Fish, he attempted to make a comeback later in 2015 but retired immediately after his comeback Test series.
Monica Seles’s case is particularly striking. Seles was the top tennis player in her day and can arguably stake claim to being among the greatest to have ever played the game. But her life and tennis history was changed forever when a mentally ill fan stabbed her during a match in Hamburg, Germany. Though Seles recovered physically from the assault, the trauma of the assault continued to haunt her. In recent interviews, she has revealed that she started binge-eating as a mechanism to cope with stress.
Taboo topic
Closer home, however, there is a startling silence. The question of mental afflictions is never mentioned or discussed in any conversation concerning sport in India. The reason behind this is the question of acceptance. As Mohar Mala Chatterjee, a psychologist, pointed out, “Athletes are individuals who have to be at the highest levels of performances, every single day. This will obviously be a source of anxiety. But because of a culture in professional sport where such topics are taboo, it remains suppressed and hidden.”
This culture of labelling any kind of mental frailty as a sign of weakness must stop. In her years of working as a sports psychologist at the Sports Authority of India, Kaul says anxiety was very much a reality among Indian athletes. “It is present in Indian sports and at times, anxiety can be a debilitative factor towards an sportsperson’s performance,” she said. “But it can be controlled through various techniques – it is even possible to channelise such anxiety into a positive force that can maximise an athlete’s performance.”
In the light of Fish’s inspirational comeback at the US Open, it is time that Indian sport start acknowledging that mental afflictions are as much part of an athlete’s life as physical injuries. While awareness is slowly being created, far more conversations are needed to bring this topic out of taboo territory and bring it into public consciousness.
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For three years, Fish was out of tennis. But he refused to fade away. He confronted his inner demons, making a triumphant return to Flushing Meadows this year. In an evocative, heart-touching piece published in The Players Tribune, Fish is frank about how anxiety had affected his life:
“I was having trouble sleeping; I couldn’t sleep alone. I had to have my wife there, with me, always. I had to have someone in the room, always. I was a guy who loved being on my own. I loved traveling on my own, that solitude. That feeling of shutting off your phone and heading on a long flight … that used to bring me peace. But I couldn’t travel on my own anymore. My parents had to come out to Wimbledon. I needed people around me at all times, period.”
Although he bowed out in the second round on Wednesday, Fish’s is an inspiring story – a story of a man who was not afraid to publicly acknowledge his anxiety issues in a world where sporting stars are invariably put on a pedestal surrounded by adoring fans and any talk of mental frailty is a symbol of weakness. But, sports psychologists admit that anxiety and other mental issues are part and parcel of every sportsperson’s life – the only caveat being that athletes are afraid to recognise it.
“It is a symptom of the social desirability phenomenon,” said Reena Kaul, a sports psychologist at the Sports Authority of India. “Every sportsman at every level of the game is anxious about their performances, but they try to hide it. They want acceptance at the highest level so they don’t portray anxiety.”
Across the field
In every major sport, cases abound of athletes struggling with mental issues. In cricket, Marcus Trescothick’s case is probably the most well-documented ‒ the talented English opener suffered from stress and depression throughout his career, vividly depicted in his autobiography Coming Back To Me. There is the example also of Jonathan Trott, who was forced to leave a tour of Australia in 2013 due to a combination of stress and anxiety issues. Like Fish, he attempted to make a comeback later in 2015 but retired immediately after his comeback Test series.
Monica Seles’s case is particularly striking. Seles was the top tennis player in her day and can arguably stake claim to being among the greatest to have ever played the game. But her life and tennis history was changed forever when a mentally ill fan stabbed her during a match in Hamburg, Germany. Though Seles recovered physically from the assault, the trauma of the assault continued to haunt her. In recent interviews, she has revealed that she started binge-eating as a mechanism to cope with stress.
Taboo topic
Closer home, however, there is a startling silence. The question of mental afflictions is never mentioned or discussed in any conversation concerning sport in India. The reason behind this is the question of acceptance. As Mohar Mala Chatterjee, a psychologist, pointed out, “Athletes are individuals who have to be at the highest levels of performances, every single day. This will obviously be a source of anxiety. But because of a culture in professional sport where such topics are taboo, it remains suppressed and hidden.”
This culture of labelling any kind of mental frailty as a sign of weakness must stop. In her years of working as a sports psychologist at the Sports Authority of India, Kaul says anxiety was very much a reality among Indian athletes. “It is present in Indian sports and at times, anxiety can be a debilitative factor towards an sportsperson’s performance,” she said. “But it can be controlled through various techniques – it is even possible to channelise such anxiety into a positive force that can maximise an athlete’s performance.”
In the light of Fish’s inspirational comeback at the US Open, it is time that Indian sport start acknowledging that mental afflictions are as much part of an athlete’s life as physical injuries. While awareness is slowly being created, far more conversations are needed to bring this topic out of taboo territory and bring it into public consciousness.
