College athletics demands a great deal from the people who compete: early mornings, relentless performance pressure, constant public evaluation, and the expectation that mental toughness is simply part of the job. For many student-athletes, asking for help feels like a direct contradiction of everything their sport has taught them to be.<\/p>\n
Research consistently reveals a troubling gap. Despite high rates of anxiety<\/a>, depression<\/a>, and mental exhaustion among college athletes\u2014one study estimated that as many as 1 in 5<\/a> experience some type of mental health concern\u2014few seek formal mental health support. <\/p>\n To learn more about why student-athletes may resist seeking help, I spoke with Luke Stenson and Wyatt Porch, Division I athletes and co-creators of TheAthleteCheck, a mental health platform for student-athletes. They offer a firsthand look at what it feels like to navigate mental health inside a performance culture, and why that perspective matters.<\/p>\n When Identity Becomes a Barrier<\/p>\n For many student-athletes, the athletic role is not just something they do. It is who they are. Experts indicate that this kind of deep identification with sport can be a double-edged sword. Athletic identity<\/a> can become a psychological liability when an athlete’s sense of self depends almost entirely on performance. This risk is especially pronounced during injury, poor performance, or the transition out of sport entirely.<\/p>\n Research shows<\/a> that stigma<\/a> is one of the most significant barriers to help-seeking in athletic populations. Many athletes describe mental health struggles as fundamentally incompatible with being an athlete\u2014a belief that performing at the highest level requires being mentally unbreakable. Stenson and Porch experienced this tension firsthand. “The barrier was never awareness,” Porch noted. “Athletes know when they’re struggling. The question is whether they believe asking for help is something athletes are allowed to do.”<\/p>\n The Silence Underneath the Performance<\/p>\n Part of what makes this issue so difficult is that many student-athletes become skilled at pushing through distress and convincing themselves that nothing is wrong. Several studies have found that athletes often minimize their symptoms or believe mental health struggles are something that happens to other people, even when they are already experiencing them firsthand.<\/p>\n It is common for athletes to learn early on to push through pain, manage discomfort, and project confidence<\/a> regardless of their internal state. These are genuinely useful skills in competition<\/a>. In the context of mental health, however, they become obstacles. The same mental toughness that earns playing time can delay a conversation that would help.<\/p>\n Why the Solution Has to Come From Within<\/p>\n When athletic identity<\/a> runs deep, support that comes from outside that world often does not register as credible. Stenson said, “We were the athletes who needed it. We knew what the real questions were\u2014not the ones on a standard intake form.” That inside perspective matters. When support comes from someone who has lived the same pressures, spoken the same language, and worn the same uniform, the conversation carries a credibility that outside intervention rarely can match.<\/p>\n Action Steps<\/p>\n Whether you are a student-athlete, coach, or someone who supports one, here are some practical steps to apply:<\/p>\n Separate your identity from your performance: Your worth is not determined by your stats, playing time, or roster spot. Build a sense of self outside your sport\u2014through relationships, interests, and values that exist regardless of how you perform. Sport and Competition Essential Reads<\/p>\n Bottom Line<\/p>\n Student-athletes are not struggling because they are weak. They are struggling because the culture that builds their strength also teaches them that asking for help is incompatible with who they are. But culture is not fixed. It shifts when the people inside it decide it should, and that shift is already happening, one honest conversation at a time.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2026 Ryan C. Warner, Ph.D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"College athletics demands a great deal from the people who compete: early mornings, relentless performance pressure, constant public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-666946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Research<\/a> shows that athletes frequently report low trust and discomfort when seeking help from providers outside their sport environment. When support comes from someone with no connection to athletic culture, it can feel removed from the pressures and realities student-athletes navigate every day. A study <\/a>showed that peer support interventions with collegiate athletes significantly enhanced psychological resilience<\/a> and reduced perceived stress<\/a>, with relatability and shared experience identified as the key mechanisms driving those outcomes.<\/p>\n
\nCheck in with yourself the way you check your physical readiness: Before competition, most athletes assess their body. Ask yourself the same questions about your mental and emotional state: Am I carrying something into this that I have not dealt with? Is my head actually in this, or am I just going through the motions?
\nSay something first: One honest conversation can change the entire feel of a locker room. Ask a teammate how they are really doing\u2014and actually wait for the answer. Culture does not shift from a memo or a mandate. It shifts when one person decides to go first.
\nAccess support before you are in crisis: The athletes who benefit most from mental health resources are those who use them early. Waiting until you are overwhelmed makes everything harder, including asking for help.
\nStart with someone who gets it: If professional support feels out of reach\u2014or if you simply want an additional layer of support\u2014find a teammate, former athlete, or someone in your sport who has been open about their own struggles and start there. That conversation is not a substitute for professional care, but for many athletes, it is what makes that call finally feel possible.<\/p>\n