Mental Health in Football

Mental health is a state of well-being that enables individuals to deal with the stressors in their daily life in a healthy way and is determined by a complex interaction with individual, social, and organisational stresses (World Health Organisation, 2022). These stressors are unique and individual to us all based on our own personal experiences and can arise from family, personal or our sporting demands.

Mental health in football is concurrent and critical for everyone, as an athlete, sporting staff, organisations, and wider society to recognise and support. Here are some statistics about mental health in the United Kingdom:

• 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem every year in England.

• 1 in 6 people report experiencing a common mental health problem (i.e., anxiety and depression) in any given week in England.

Suicidal thoughts and self-harm aren’t mental health diagnoses but associated to mental health. Over the course of someone’s lifetime:

• 1 in 5 people have suicidal thoughts.

• 1 in 14 people self-harm

• 1 in 15 people attempt suicide.

In any given week in England:

• Mixed anxiety and depression: 8 in 100 people

• Depression: 3 in 100 people

• Panic disorder: fewer than 1 in 100 people

• Generalised anxiety disorder: 6 in 100 people

• Post-traumatic stress disorder: 4 in 100 people

Gender for high or very high levels of distress:

• Females – 29% 

• Males – 20%

Positive wellbeing

• Females – 75%

• Males – 85% 

There are physical and psychological challenges of mental health within the football environment. These may look like in practice of intense training, physical burnout, sport related injury, disordered eating, substance use, sleep reduction and physical stress. Psychological challenges of cognitive dysfunction, depression, anxiety, traumatic stress, and aggression. Both psychological and physical challenges can lead to a decrease in performance, a lack of social relationships, intense burnout, low energy, a hinderance of training, physical signs of harm by self and others (i.e., cuts and bruises) (Gardner & Moore, 2006; Moore, 2012). Psychologically we may experience loneliness, low self-esteem, a lack of motivation, a lack of passion and sense of purpose and excessive self-criticism. 

Recognising the impact of both physical and psychological challenges in ourselves as athletes, staff and teammates can contribute to the first step in supporting others during these critical times by helping them feel seen and heard. Sport Psychologists provide a psychologically safe and open space for athletes and staff to confidentially express how they are feeling to receive the appropriate support. Furthermore, by creating this safe environment, psychologists can work at an organisational cultural level to ensure that players feel supported to speak about their mental health without judgement.

Below are some experiences from professional footballers on Mental Health:

“It’s important not to keep your feelings bottled up. It really helps to share them with someone” – Lucy Bronze.

“This has been a tough time for a lot of people, me included. Personally, living alone in Europe has been tough at times” – Christian Pulisic.

“People say footballers have got it easy… that they only work 10am to 2pm. But they stay in reading message after message telling them they hate them. If they want to go out for a release, maybe to the pub, they have people telling them they have ruined their weekend and want them to die. Is that the kind of life you want?” – Rob Blackburne.

Mental health services – United Kingdom

• https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/mental-health-services/ NHS – 111 / 0800 001 4331

• https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/mental-health-problems-introduction/support-services/ Mind – 0300 123 3393

• https://www.samaritans.org Samaritans – 116 123 

it is important that if you are struggling to reach out to someone whether that is a trusted family member, peer, your coach or the services above (based on the UK above, these supported services may be different if you are in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia or Australia etc).

If you are interested in reading about Mental Health experiences in football, there is an article below:

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12122567/footballs-mental-health-epidemic-big-problem-nobody-is-talking-about 

• Football’s mental health epidemic ‘a big problem no one is talking about’ interview with Sky Sports in 2020 from Rob Blackburne.