Transcription:

Brandon Kramer:

 

​ Why do you think athletes and people who struggle with anxiety in general are more likely to keep things to themselves rather than speak up?

 

Dr Matthew Rouse:

 

That's a great question. Athletes, I think the first is that I think a lot of sports are really imbued with a culture of masculinity, even women's sports, I think.

 

And so anxiety is rooted in the fear system, and I think fear is antithetical to being a man in our culture. It's like you're not a scaredy cat, don't be afraid. Like that kind of stuff are all associated with. Qualities that are not traditionally masculine. So I think with anxiety specifically, I think there's a little bit more of a pressure of not letting that show on the, in the sports realm.

 

And then the other thing I was thinking about is that I think athletes maybe. A positive thing about athletes is that they might be exceptionally able to push through minor aches, pains, distress, that kind of thing. Because, I think to, especially if you're at a high level, like they're just day-to-day dealing with soreness or, a little twinge or that kind of thing. And so I think that one of the ways that they got to that level is by not letting those things really hold them back. And so I think they probably take that same approach to things like mental health and anxiety, and they just, say, oh I'm just gonna push through this and ignore it like I do.

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Brandon Kramer:

 

How do panic attacks impact an athlete? How could that impact someone that needs to perform at a high level?

 

Dr Matthew Rouse:

 

So first I, I'll talk a little bit maybe about what panic attacks are because panic attacks are really really a physiological phenomenon that happens where just somehow our body gets hijacked by our fight or flight system and so the person experiences all of those kind of intense.

 

Anxiety symptoms heart racing, shallow breathing, tunnel vision nausea these kinds of things. And a lot of people, because I think about half of the time, they come out of the blue, like they come with no precipitant. Like you, it's not like the person is in a situation where they feel fearful.

 

And so sometimes they just come out of the blue. Which has a lot of people ending up in the emergency room 'cause they think they're having a heart attack because what else is this? I wasn't feeling anxious and then suddenly I'm like having all these panic symptoms. So that I can imagine having a panic attack in the middle of, or before a, some time when an athlete has to perform could definitely affect their performance.

 

I think it would take. Someone out of a game basically for the rest of the game or prevent them from playing. But then I think where it also, maybe more long-term can have effects is that it panic attack can develop into panic disorder. If that person then starts to have. Fear that it's gonna happen again in the same situation.

 

So someone who has a panic attack on an airplane might start avoiding airplanes because they don't want to have another panic attack. And so if an athlete develops some kind of idea about I got, I got that panic attack when we were in Royal Stadium or something, so I'm never gonna go to Royal Stadium again, then then that might be a problem.

 

For them too, if they start to develop those associations with why they had the panic attack.

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Brandon Kramer:

 

Up until, I would say up until COVID. You rarely heard about athletes speaking up about their mental health. But I think since COVID, you've seen so many athletes publicly use their platform to talk about it. Why do you think it's important in this, the world of sports and sports anxiety for these respected athletes to speak up?

 

Dr Matthew Rouse:

 

The answer that's jumping out at me is really for a trickle-down effect where, if the ones that everyone assumes are just so mentally strong and have it together and never struggle with any kind of, anxieties or mental health issues, if they start to.

 

Explain what they go through, then I think that opens up the door for people who maybe have put them on a pedestal to say they're just like me and they spoke out and or they got help, and so I can get help and maybe I can even be public about this and help, the next person down the line.