How would you react if you found out your favorite athlete was struggling with anxiety, depression, or some other mental health condition?

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Professional Baseball Faces Loaded Issue: Mental Health, Shirley Wang states:

Some fans might not feel much sympathy for the psychological burdens of professional baseball players — athletes who typically earn huge salaries to do what many people would consider a dream job.

Sadly, that’s probably true for many people – and not just of how they feel when they find out a professional athlete is anxious or depressed. Some people feel the same way when they find out other well-paid current and former athletes (like Ricky Williams, Herschel Walker, and others listed in Wang’s articles) as well as rich actors, actresses, musicians, and other entertainers suffer from mental health problems.

It’s as if the general population believes not only that money can fix everything, but also that people who have money have no reason to to feel anything but happy.

After all, they’re rich, right? They’re famous, and everyone loves them, right? If they’re feeling down they can just buy something to make them happy or make some special appearance and listen to the crowds roar for them, right?

What a joke.

Of course, fans aren’t the only ones placing athletes on ridiculous, razor wire-covered pedestals. As Wang also points out:

The public’s perception that professional athletes are impervious to the challenges afflicting mere mortals makes it harder for athletes to admit their struggles. And people who work with top athletes say their high public profile leaves them especially vulnerable to anxiety. The stakes are high. Slips in performance don’t go unnoticed by 50,000 people in a stadium, some of whom are happy to provide less-than-constructive feedback.

And the same drive that successfully propels athletes to the professional level can then exacerbate failures by making ballplayers become excessively hard on themselves, psychologists say.

Unlike Zack Greinke of the Kansas City Royals, who has spoken at length about his social anxiety and possible depression, the baseball players in Wang’s article (Dontrelle Willis of the Detroit Tigers, Khalil Greene of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds) have given brief public statements about why they landed on the disabled list this season – but seem to want to leave it at that for now.

The stigma related to mental illness is still a very real and unfortunate part of our society, and one that often prevents people – the famous and not-so-famous alike – from seeking treatment. Rob Manfred, executive vice president of labor relations in the baseball commissioner’s office, claims each club must maintain a confidential employee assistance program according to Major League Baseball policy and regularly monitored by the commissioner’s office, and that the MLB treats mental illness no differently that physical ailments.

This is good.

Also good is that at least a few of these players are seeking help, despite the pressure they feel stardom places on them.

Now, what some of the rest of us need to do (including those athletes who might be struggling with mental health problems but feel too embarrassed or pressured to seek help) is realize that mental illness doesn’t show favoritism and no one – no matter how many players they’ve struck out over the course of their careers, or how many concerts they’ve sold out, or how many Oscars their last movie earned them – is immune, and the best thing anyone with a mental health problem can do is take some time for him/herself and seek help.

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From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (July 2, 2009)

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freefrombroke (July 2, 2009)

everyminute.org (July 3, 2009)

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everyminute.org (February 18, 2010)

NAMI San Francisco (February 23, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 2 Jul 2009