Jonathan Trott is not the first world-class cricketer to return home from the intense spotlight of the Ashes tour with a stress-related illness. The nature of the game - a team sport played by individuals – and the type of personality required to excel, risks the mental health of many of its players.
The big question is whether the sports associations are doing enough to support players at all levels within the game.
According to Telegraph journalist Steve James, himself a former cricketer, there is still a culture of secrecy within the sport when it comes to mental illness. Indeed the word ‘depression’ was rarely mentioned in the numerous media interviews.
Writing in the paper on Monday 25th November, James says that sport should be grateful for the bravery of cricketers such as Marcus Trescothick, Darren Cousins and Tim Ambrose who have all spoken publicly about their mental health over recent years.
The courage it takes to do this or to show any indication of weakness within such a macho sport was self-evident from the comments that Aussie player David Warner made a few days earlier about Trott having ‘scared eyes’.
The type of training given to the physical body should be extended to ensuring the health of the mind.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is well proven to be effective in ‘retraining’ the mind to allow an individual to consider the world from a better perspective. It helps create a tool kit of coping mechanisms for the pressures of life.
PsychologyOnline’s approach to CBT is particularly effective and it is available wherever you are, 24x 7, all that is required is a computer and an internet connection.
However robust you are, intense ambition, long periods away from home, high pressure, high financial stakes, detachment from family are all risk elements that can adversely affect your mental health.
Perhaps now is the time to promote the concept of a ‘physio for the mind’ and use the pressures faced by our top sportspeople to show that although depression is something that can happen to the best of us, it can be effectively treated.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is well proven to be effective in ‘retraining’ the mind to allow an individual to consider the world from a better perspective. It helps create a tool kit of coping mechanisms for the pressures of life.
PsychologyOnline’s approach to CBT is particularly effective and it is available wherever you are, 24x 7, all that is required is a computer and an internet connection.
However robust you are, intense ambition, long periods away from home, high pressure, high financial stakes, detachment from family are all risk elements that can adversely affect your mental health.
Perhaps now is the time to promote the concept of a ‘physio for the mind’ and use the pressures faced by our top sportspeople to show that although depression is something that can happen to the best of us, it can be effectively treated.
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