Mental Health Wellness Plays a Role in Beilein’s Championship Success

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By Jeremy Fallis, Athletes Connected Communicator

The end-product of a championship season is done in public: hoisting the trophy and cutting down the nets. Beyond the scenes, however, the hours of work on the court and in the film room fuels success. There’s planning, effort and sweat.

What may not be seen, but is felt by the athletes, is something that’s vital to a team’s triumph: support.

Head men’s basketball coach John Beilein has proven that supporting a student-athletes’ mental wellbeing enhances a winning culture.

“I want [students] to know: You are not alone. Everyone has similar issues, even coaches. It is all a part of life and you can manage it.” — John Beilein

“I would like to be known as a teacher and mentor much more than as their coach,” Beilein said of his role in his athletes’ lives. “I believe mental health affects everyone. Athletes are more in public view than ever before so they have a few extra things to think about.”

Shaping student-athletes to perform in all aspects of their lives is something Beilein always strives for. Creating values and a positive culture extends beyond the coaches telling players what to do. Beilein focuses on the person as a whole.

“We encourage our athletes to look at the big picture and embrace adversity,” he said. “We encourage meditation and prioritize the important things in life.”

Beilein, who has now led the Wolverines to back-to-back Big Ten Tournament titles, is readily aware that his position extends beyond the X’s and O’s. He’s mindful that student-athletes may have misunderstandings about how coaches think of their mental health.

“A common misconception is that coaches only care about performance,” Beilein said. “I sincerely believe most coaches love their student-athletes and feel that their student-athlete personal welfare is more important than their performance.”

Coaches can play a dynamic role in encouraging their student-athletes to seek support systems, such as wellness groups or counseling, for wherever they fall on the spectrum of wellbeing. Since 2014, when Athletes Connected was launched, the program has hosted wellness groups for all student-athletes on a bi-weekly basis, in addition to the already existing services provided by U-M Performance Psychology Athletic Counseling.

Beilein has been a supporter of Athletes Connected since its inception. He’s acknowledged that he felt “virtually helpless as a coach” in previous instances of student-athletes battling depression.

“We recommend our student-athletes speak with our counselors,” added Beilein. “We introduce our counseling staff to our players in one of our first team meetings of the year.”

Continuing on, Beilein stays involved in the process to assure his athletes are feeling healthy.

“I want to be connected and up-to-date on what is available and what strategies are available.”

The University of Michigan has been at the forefront of student-athlete mental health awareness and wellbeing. In addition to PPAC and Athletes Connected, the athletic department unveiled a Messages of Hope Board in the Ross Athletic Center where athletes can write positive and supportive notes to leave for one another or take pre-written notes that are meaningful to keep. The board has been widely popular since its unveiling in September.

“I believe students are much more open about discussing these things that may inhibit their quality of life and peak performance,” Beilein said. “I want them to know: you are not alone. Everyone has similar issues, even coaches. It is all a part of life and you can manage it.”

About Athletes Connected
Formed in 2014 on an NCAA pilot grant by a collaboration of University of Michigan Depression Center, Athletics and School of Public Health, Athletes Connected actively works to provide student-athletes with the tools and resources possible to support student-athletes along the continuum of wellbeing. Athletes Connected does this by promoting awareness of mental health issues, reducing the stigma of help-seeking and promoting positive coping skills among student-athletes. To learn more about the program, view the entire catalog of videos, read original stories and access helpful resources for student-athletes and non-athletes alike.

Players’ Tribune: Everyone Is Going Through Something

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Cleveland Cavaliers forward and NBA All-Star Kevin Love opened up about his panic attacks in the Players’ Tribune. Spurred on by DeMar DeRozan’s shared story, Love details how life’s secrets are masked and how he’s being truthful with himself now.

By Kevin Love

On November 5th, right after halftime against the Hawks, I had a panic attack.

It came out of nowhere. I’d never had one before. I didn’t even know if they were real. But it was real — as real as a broken hand or a sprained ankle. Since that day, almost everything about the way I think about my mental health has changed.

Mental health isn’t just an athlete thing. What you do for a living doesn’t have to define who you are. This is an everyone thing.

I’ve never been comfortable sharing much about myself. I turned 29 in September and for pretty much 29 years of my life I have been protective about anything and everything in my inner life. I was comfortable talking about basketball — but that came natural. It was much harder to share personal stuff, and looking back now I know I could have really benefited from having someone to talk to over the years. But I didn’t share — not to my family, not to my best friends, not in public. Today, I’ve realized I need to change that. I want to share some of my thoughts about my panic attack and what’s happened since. If you’re suffering silently like I was, then you know how it can feel like nobody really gets it. Partly, I want to do it for me, but mostly, I want to do it because people don’t talk about mental health enough. And men and boys are probably the farthest behind.

I know it from experience. Growing up, you figure out really quickly how a boy is supposed to act. You learn what it takes to “be a man.” It’s like a playbook: Be strong. Don’t talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own. So for 29 years of my life, I followed that playbook. And look, I’m probably not telling you anything new here. These values about men and toughness are so ordinary that they’re everywhere … and invisible at the same time, surrounding us like air or water. They’re a lot like depression or anxiety in that way.

So for 29 years, I thought about mental health as someone else’s problem. Sure, I knew on some level that some people benefited from asking for help or opening up. I just never thought it was for me. To me, it was form of weakness that could derail my success in sports or make me seem weird or different.

Read the rest of the story on The Players’ Tribune.

Toronto Star: DeRozan Hopes Honest Talk on Depression Helps Others

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Toronto Raptors and NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan opened up about his depression battle in the Toronto Star. His tweet over the All-Star break hinted about coping with troubled times. Now he wants to help others by talking about depression. Below is an excerpt.

By Doug Smith

They appear to be invincible, professional athletes do, with so much money, so much fame, so many people to help with everything — a first-class life, everything taken care of.

And then the difficult, lonely moments hit — maybe in the middle of the night, or maybe just out of nowhere — and they struggle as many do to handle them, the tugs of life overwhelming.

DeMar DeRozan, who would seemingly have it all, knows those struggles — those times of depression, anxiety, loneliness — as well as anyone and they are his demons to deal with.

“It’s one of them things that no matter how indestructible we look like we are, we’re all human at the end of the day,” the 28-year-old Raptors all-star said. “We all got feelings . . . all of that. Sometimes . . . it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole world’s on top of you.”

DeRozan is unimaginably wealthy, uncommonly famous and has at his disposal a virtual army of family, friends and support staff arranged in part by the Raptors.

And still . . .

At home among his family, a break from the everyday grind of NBA life upon him, DeRozan found himself in one of those dark moments in the middle of the night a week ago in Los Angeles. And in a moment that belies his very private nature, he made a cryptic comment on his Twitter feed that was a glimpse into a previously hidden solitude.

That it came out of nowhere in the dark of the night, on an NBA all-star weekend many thought would be a celebration for the Compton kid at home, was jarring. It was out of character and out of place, but not as it happens out of the norm. It set off a maelstrom of support throughout social media, and tossing it off just as a lyric from a song is to not do the whole issue justice.

It was a hard time. DeRozan was letting everyone know.

“I always have various nights,” he said in a wide-ranging and wildly open glimpse into his private life. “I’ve always been like that since I was young, but I think that’s where my demeanour comes from.”

Read the rest of the story on thestar.com.

Q&A: U-M Runner Ben Flanagan

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The Athletes Connected program recognizes the many different entities that factor into student-athlete mental health. As part of our Q&A series, Athletes Connected shares how coaches, administrators, athletic trainers and other athletic staff approach their roles in the lives of student-athlete health.

To continue the series, Athletes Connected caught up with long distance runner Ben Flanagan of the men’s track & field/cross country team.

See our preview Q&A posts:
U-M senior associate athletic trainer Jeremy Marra
U-M head diving coach Mike Hilde

Q: Tell us about yourself.  What are you studying?  What are your passions?  What do you do away from your sport and school?   
A: I am currently a graduate student in the School of Social Work, studying interpersonal practice with a focus on mental health. I am also a senior on the men’s track & field and cross country teams. I have always been passionate about finding ways to positively influence the lives of others and make meaningful contributions to my local communities. When I am outside of the classroom and off the track, I enjoy spending quality time with my closest friends, catching up with my family back home over FaceTime, and dedicating time to volunteering.

Q: What is your role within SAAC?
A: I am a co-representative for mental health along with Mira Shane, as a member of the executive board for SAAC. Mira and I mostly act as liaisons between the student-athlete community and the Performance Psychology and Athletic Counseling team in the athletic department. We also help with organizing events related to advocating for student athlete mental health support and self care.

Q: What it is like to be a student-athlete at Michigan?   
A: Being a student-athlete at the University of Michigan is a truly humbling experience. It presents academic and athletic challenges that are meticulously crafted to unveil one’s true potential.

Q: Have you seen a that shift in the way mental health is talked about among student-athletes?  
A: We are heading in the right direction. I think the importance of mental health is becoming more recognized in the student-athlete community and coaches, athletic staff and faculty members also seem to be becoming more accommodating. I think time is still a limiting factor and can be difficult to overcome considering how booked student-athlete schedules tend to be.

Q: What barriers do you see as to reasons why student-athletes are reluctant to reach out?
A: In my opinion, both academic and athletic settings can have the tendencies to overemphasize the importance of independent work, independent responsibilities, and at times, independent success. As student-athletes it can feel like codependence is a sign of weakness, despite the value it can serve in terms of reassurance, emotional wellbeing, and overall productivity and success.

Q: What will help break down some of those barriers?  
A: Continuing education about support networks. The more student athletes know about the resources available and the benefits of using them, the more likely that they will be utilized.

Q: What do you think would be most helpful in breaking that barrier?
A: Empathy. Learning about relatable mental health experiences within the student-athlete community is a humanizing experience that serves as an important reminder that you are not alone.

Q: What advice can you give other athletic departments, from a student-athlete perspective, surrounding mental health support?
A: To faculty members, continue to be understanding when it comes to student-athlete’s concerns. To student-athletes, utilize the resources available to see how they work for you. The hardest, but most important step is the first.

LA Times: Barksdale Breaks Silence

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Los Angeles Chargers starting right tackle Joe Barksdale was profiled by the Los Angles Times. He discussed his battles with severe depression, his therapy and how he hopes to be an advocate for people suffering from chronic depression.

By Dan Woike

The thoughts Joe Barksdale had wrestled with for as long as he could remember started to get louder.

“Just kill yourself. Just do it. What’s the point of living if you’re going to be this miserable the rest of your life? Just kill yourself.”

It was early November 2017 and Barksdale, the Chargers’ starting right tackle, sat in the team’s training room. He’d just found out he wouldn’t be playing in an upcoming game against Jacksonville after injuring his foot during a fight with a teammate.

“If I could save another person, maybe that’s why the attempts [to harm himself] didn’t work,” — Joe Barksdale

He’d missed the previous two games with a toe injury that had been bothering him for more than a month. Now, he was going to be out again.

He cried.

His severe depression — something Barksdale calls the “monkey” always on his back — had gotten the best of him. Truth didn’t matter anymore. Only sadness did.

He got home and sharpened a knife, his mind racing. His wife, Brionna, convinced him to put it down. They talked, he calmed, and the crisis was averted.

Barksdale, who is on medication and in therapy, is sharing his story in the hopes of becoming an advocate for people suffering from chronic depression.

“If I could save another person, maybe that’s why the attempts [to harm himself] didn’t work,” he said.

During a wide-ranging interview with The Times, Barksdale, 29, said he was physically, emotionally and sexually abused as a child.

He hesitated to talk about the abuse at first before deciding to share his experience. “I was molested when I was younger,” he said. “It happened.”

It was the beginning of childhood filled with insecurities and anxieties.

He felt like a burden because of his size. He was expensive to clothe and feed. He was more interested in engineering than he was in sports. Older kids in inner-city Detroit picked on him.

“Everything that’s happened to me going forward has just piled onto it,” he said. “It’s not going away. They’re like tattoos.”

As he continued to fight a sadness he knew would stay with him, Barksdale found one way to feel better.

Less than four years after learning how to play guitar — at former coach Jeff Fisher’s suggestion — Barksdale just released his debut album, “Butterflies, Rainbows & Moonbeams.”

“If he was stressed out, where some people might go and smoke a cigarette or something, he’d go and pick up his guitar,” Brionna said. “His guitar was his outlet, and once he started writing music it was even better because he could get those thoughts and feelings out in words and music.”

Brionna wrote the lyrics to the most personal song on the album, “Journey to Nowhere,” after a tough night for Barksdale due to his depression.

Read the rest of the story on LATimes.com.