Deprioritizing Mental Toughness in Athlete Mental Health

Hannah Conner, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

Athlete mental health and sport psychology has been increasing in popularity and visibility for the past decade. Due to the increased visibility, there have been more open conversations about mental health within and outside of athletic spaces.

Athletes sharing their stories has also created a shift in how we manage mental health in sport and performance infrastructure by making services more accessible and available for support. Not to mention, seeing an athlete open up about their mental health has the potential for individuals to start their own journey as well.

While all of these factors seem like a positive change, the theories and types of treatment that are sport specific are not always perfect and sometimes cause more harm if not utilized carefully. 

What is mental toughness?

One of the aspects of athlete mental health that is thought to be quintessential to an athlete’s performance is mental toughness.

Mental toughness can be thought of as a trainable skill that emphasizes one’s resilience, regulation, and commitment to goals. Mental toughness is also thought of as grit, tenacity, or drive within an athletic environment. Mental toughness is utilized to teach athletes how to bounce back from discomfort, maintain a positive mindset, and used to keep composure when experiencing uncomfortable emotions.

Many models of mental toughness even include aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy, visualization methods, and meditation skills.

While all of this sounds helpful and supportive, there is subliminal messaging in this framework that, if not careful, can send a harmful message to athletes that is difficult to unlearn in the future. 

What are the drawbacks of mental toughness?

Unfortunately, there is the possibility of ‘too much of a good thing’ when it comes to mental toughness. While there are helpful intentions at the core of this theory and the skills training that accompanies it, there are several pitfalls that may occur if this skill is over-utilized by coaches and athletes.

Increased Rigidity

If mental toughness is misinterpreted, athletes may experience more black and white thinking that only allows them to view themselves as ‘strong’ or ‘weak’, ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘worthy’ or ‘worthless’.

With a core emphasis on being resilient and being positive, athletes can feel a pressure to appear as such, which usually results in increased anxiety and performance issues. 

Ignoring Feelings/Instincts

The emphasis on positivity can also teach athletes that uncomfortable feelings are to be feared or eradicated. We can quickly demonize feelings and see them as a choice instead of understanding why our feelings are showing up and the messages that they carry.

By outlining the importance of positivity, we can unintentionally add pressure to suppress other feelings, which in turn, can suppress our instinct and intuition. Feelings aren’t meant to be feared, but are to be expressed and acknowledged. 

Prioritizing Suppression 

Not only does mental toughness have the potential of teaching athletes to ignore their feelings, it can also spiral into suppression becoming a primary coping skill.

If we aren’t careful, athletes will bottle up their thoughts and feelings that are perceived as ‘negative’ and ‘bad’ and may never find a healthy outlet or way to process through these experiences. 

Lack of Individualized Application

Although mental toughness is thought to be widely applicable, there is a wide gap when it comes to intersectionality.

Unfortunately, since this framework is more performance oriented rather than rooted in clinical mental health, there is also the risk of symptom misinterpretation and symptom masking that may occur.

There is a lack of direction and adaptation when it comes to mental toughness and people of color, queer folks, and those who are neurodiverse.

Since resiliency, emotional regulation, and a ‘positive’ mindset is more complex with those with diverse backgrounds, the assumptiveness of the framework can add to symptom misunderstandings and individualism of athletes within a team.

Pushing Through Pain

While this is usually thought of in a physical context, pushing through emotional pain can overlap into our mental health as well.

If we put too much of an emphasis on mental toughness, there may be athlete misinterpretation that leads them to push themselves to an unhealthy space. This might look like not asking for help, feelings of isolation, and in some cases self-harm.

This can be additionally harmful if coaches and supports reiterate harmful language about mental health and don’t vocally endorse vulnerability. 

Alternatives to mental toughness

While there are some aspects of mental toughness that can be thought of as helpful, there are also more well rounded, sustainable, and inclusive ways to prioritize athletes’ mental health.

Yes, it is essential to think about athletes as a specific population, but it is also important to also view athletes holistically to provide care that will be applicable after their departure from organized sport.

Building Emotional Flexibility

Understanding that feelings are meant to be acknowledged, validated, and coped with gives individuals an interactive way to build comfort within emotional discomfort.

Teaching athletes to validate themselves and understand their feelings helps build autonomy, agency, and confidence to navigate their mental health. It also is transferrable and can help build empathy for others within their team.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy has very concrete building blocks for learning how to sit with feelings, identify feelings, and cope with feelings in a way that builds emotional intelligence.

Cognitive Defusion 

Teaching cognitive defusion helps athletes recognize critical and negative self-talk. Cognitive defusion is a framework that emphasizes creating distance from one’s thoughts and works to help people see that their thoughts aren’t facts.

This is helpful for thought shifting and externalizing criticism and reduces the likelihood of thought spirals and dysregulation. 

Somatic Practices

Using body-based regulation techniques can provide awareness of how our emotions are attached to our bodily experiences. These practices are significantly helpful when an athlete needs to move out of a fight-or-flight state and into regulation.

Somatic practices are also helpful when it comes to managing mental health symptoms for those living with anxiety, depression, and trauma. 

Individualized Care

Unfortunately, mental toughness can be limiting when it comes to the perception of those using the skills. As we know, not everyone’s lived experience is the same, so our care for athletes should be individualized.

We want to be careful that an athlete doesn’t feel as though their experience in sport is their singular identity. This can help prevent assumptions as well as limit chances of subjecting athletes to systems of oppression like racism, sexism, ableism, etc. that aren’t always accounted for within sport psychology theories or practices.

It is important to prioritize the differences within athlete mental health in order to prevent folks from falling through the gaps. People aren’t a monolith, and neither are athletes. 

Empathy without Solutioning

Athlete mental health can be challenging due to expectations during and after the game. Several spaces might not feel safe for athletes to discuss their feelings. It is important to try to be a safe space for an athlete by prioritizing empathy.

Learning how to sit with someone else’s feelings and validate them instead of solving for them might be a game changer for a player who is feeling overwhelmed and alone.

Trying to meet people with empathy and understanding can reduce guilt and shame significantly. We don’t want to give the impression that an athlete is doing something wrong by trying to ‘solve’ their feelings for them, instead providing a space to process, vent, and sit with the feeling might be more productive. 

Moving Towards Inclusion

As the concern for athlete mental health continues to grow, it is important to remember that the systems we have in place are not perfect.

Though they are more helpful than they used to be, we can always be doing better to ensure the practices enacted are rooted in clinical outcomes.

Mental toughness does have its place in the sport psychology setting, and it is important to not solely depend on it due to its shortcomings.

By adding more holistic practices into athlete mental health regimens, we can improve the quality and value of services provided to athletes.

It’s essential that athletes have referrals, resources, and recommendations for a broad range of specialists including therapists, coaches, and peer support seems like the right step moving forward.