Author Archive: Stephanie Salazar

After ’13 Reasons Why,’ a Spotlight on Teen Suicide Warning Signs

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Below is an excerpt from the Michigan Medicine Health Blog

By Stephanie Abraham

A popular yet controversial Netflix show highlights a serious issue. A Michigan Medicine clinical social worker offers advice to help identify a person at risk.
The new Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” follows a high school student who takes her life by suicide after a series of traumatic but common teenage events. The main character, a 17-year-old, releases a series of audio recordings that detail the circumstances leading up to her death.

The fictional series, based on a 2007 young adult novel, has been widely criticized and discussed in the media, among parents and mental health professionals, and by young people.

Some say the program glorifies suicide. Singer-actress Selena Gomez, the show’s executive producer, who has struggled with depression herself, says the series — rated TV-MA — is meant to provoke realistic discussion.

Still, “it’s hard to avoid sensationalizing suicide,” says Meg Jennings, LMSW, social-work supervisor for Michigan Medicine’s Regional Alliance for Healthy Schools. The initiative provides school-based health programs and clinical services, including individual and group therapy, at six locations in Washtenaw County and three in the Flint area.

The subject has touched countless families.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, depression may affect up to 1 in 4 teens by the end of their adolescence. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15- to 24-year-olds, second only to accidents.

Jennings, an expert on teen suicide, recently watched “13 Reasons Why.” She explained some of the warning signs for suicide that parents and peers should know.

A need for vigilance
Someone who is potentially suicidal will talk about death and having no reason to live. The individual may see himself or herself as a huge burden, making comments such as, “When I am gone, things are going to be better for everyone else.”

The person may have unbearable pain and no hope for future. Often, those contemplating suicide feel that continuing to live is overwhelming or unbearable.

But that outlook also can shift.

“Sometimes, if someone’s mood has improved it may be because they have decided to commit suicide,” says Jennings. “It is a good idea to be cognizant of this if you have interacted with someone who was deeply hopeless just days before.”

You should take note and immediate action if the person is talking about a specific plan to carry out his or her death, Jennings adds.

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MLive: Battling depression, Ypsilanti Lincoln’s Ty Groce ready to get back to basketball

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Below is an excerpt from MLive.com

By Ryan Zuke

Ty Groce had it all going right for him on the basketball court during his senior year at Ypsilanti Lincoln.

He was a match-up nightmare against opponents, averaging 17.6 points, 11.7 rebounds, 4.4 blocks and 3.4 steals per game. The 6-foot-7 forward earned Class A all-state honors and had a scholarship to play at Northeastern University.

But away from the gym was a different story. Groce was trapped inside his own mind, always feeling sad and depressed without understanding why. Then, Groce’s emotions reached a tipping point during the first week he was at Northeastern in the summer of 2016.

“Starting at the beginning of my senior year, I was feeling sad and was always down for no reason,” Groce said. “As my senior year progressed, it just got worse and worse. Toward graduation, I was dealing with a lot of stress and anxiety and didn’t really know what the problem was.

“When I left for Northeastern, I just crashed. I felt like I was losing my mind there. I was just sad all the time for no reason, couldn’t focus on the gym, couldn’t focus on my summer classes.”

Suddenly, basketball became an afterthought. Groce’s main priority was getting his life back on track.

“I have never felt better,” he said. “I feel almost 100 percent now. Since I came home, I got help immediately, so I’ve been working with my therapist and nurse practitioner. Since then, I have been getting better and better each day. I feel great now.”

COMING HOME

Groce, who turns 19 May 27, transferred to Eastern Michigan and moved home before he ever stepped on the court for Northeastern. He put playing basketball on hold and focused on getting help.

Groce was diagnosed with major depression and bipolar disorder last fall and immediately began therapy.

Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It affects about 6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of American.

Bipolar is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function.

Fast forward to April and Groce already has seen positive results battling the illnesses.

“I have never felt better,” he said. “I feel almost 100 percent now. Since I came home, I got help immediately, so I’ve been working with my therapist and nurse practitioner. Since then, I have been getting better and better each day. I feel great now.”

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Former Elite Athletes Reveal Mental Health Struggles After Retirement

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Below is an exceprt from the Huffington Post Australia

By Luke Cooper

A cast of former elite Australian athletes have openly admitted to struggling with mental health issues, addiction and coming to terms with their identities after retiring from the sports in which they became champions.

Appearing on the first instalment of a two-part edition of SBS’ Insight, ex-Sydney Swans captain Barry Hall and former Olympians Lauren Jackson, Libby Trickett, Matthew Mitcham and Jana Pittman all detailed the difficulties they experienced with understanding who they were without sport.

AFL star Barry Hall retired in 2011, ending his career with the Western Bulldogs after a seven-year stint with the Sydney Swans, and said he struggled mentally with the lack of routine that comes with the life of an ex-athlete in retirement.

“Identity is a huge part. You start sport young and it becomes intertwined with who you are for so long. Then overnight it’s gone.”

“I chose to retire, I wanted to retire. I got the feeling that when I went to training every day that I didn’t want to train anymore,” he said.

“I didn’t want to prepare to the best of my ability to perform on the weekend. I think at that stage that’s the time to give up the game. Did I struggle after the sport finished? Absolutely.

“I had two or three months… that I really struggled. I didn’t get out of bed. I didn’t answer mates’ phone calls, I was eating terribly, drinking heavily. A tough time. And look, I didn’t know at that stage it was a form of depression.”

Basketball great Lauren Jackson, who announced her retirement in 2016 after a spate of injuries, said she needed a doctor to tell her directly that her career was over and found it “really difficult” leave the game.

“I was pushed out because of injury, obviously. And I personally wasn’t ready to retire. It was one of those things where I couldn’t run any more and, there was no way I could get back out on to a court,” she said.

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News Medical: New research compares symptoms of depression in elite athletes and non-sports people

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Read the original story on News Medical

Sport has long been known to promote a sense of well-being, but at an elite level, athletes are just as likely to suffer from depression as people who don’t do any sport, a new study has found.

The research from the University of Portsmouth is the first of its kind to compare symptoms of depression in elite and non-athletes. It found that elite athletes are no more likely than people who don’t do sport to report mild or more severe depressive symptoms.

Led by Dr Paul Gorczynski from the University’s Department of Sport and Exercise Science, the study examined data from 1545 high-performance athletes and 1811 non-athletes.

The researchers analysed data from five studies involving elite athletes ranging in age from 12 – 41 years, 54 per cent of whom were female. For the non-athletes, 52 per cent of individuals were female and ranged in age from 12 to 81 years. Female athletes were more than half as likely to report symptoms compared to male athletes, which also mirrored non-athletes.

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Welcome to Our New Website!

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By Jeremy Fallis, Depression Center Multimedia Services Communicator

It is our pleasure to unveil the new AthletesConnected.umich.edu. Over the past few months, we have been revamping, retooling and renewing all the best parts of this website in order to fit our key audiences: student-athletes, coaches, researchers, and family and friends who support student-athletes.

We have used feedback from these audiences, including our ever-helpful Campus Advisory Board, to rebuild a friendlier-to-use site that provides resources for coping and help as well as a more visual representation of our work and the work of others.

When a new user lands on the home page, which is fully responsive, he or she will be greeted by our hero image, welcoming all visitors to Athletes Connected. A top navigation bar features drop down links to helpful areas of the website, which we’ll go into further detail below. Beyond the hero image we feature four core areas of the website as well as buttons for stories and support. When the user scrolls further, tiles of past stories and articles related to athletic mental wellness and our specific work in the program come alive with visual hovering effects and preview images. And lastly, our footer reaffirms our three University of Michigan collaborators on this project: The Depression Center, School of Public Health and Athletics.

A quick tour of the site allows a particular user to head into one of several areas that addresses student-athlete mental wellness. One section, specifically for student-athletes, is broken down into areas of how to get support, mental health & performance and skills & strategies. This will allow student-athletes to seek various resources, whether they’re on-campus, interpersonal help, or online tutorials and videos on coping skills.

Another section is made for researchers, where we share how our pilot program was accepted in 2014 and where we intend to go. Additionally, we’ll be sharing more impactful research from our co-collaborators in the School of Public Health and the Healthy Minds Network.

Our third main section is how to help. This area is intended for associated staff members, friends, family and others related to student-athletes. Helpful guidance is provided to these groups of supporters and we look forward to expanding this corner of the site to more specifically address the needs of each group.

Two other important areas that we’re proud to host, and are intended for anyone coming to the site, is our video library and our about section. Some of the most impactful pieces we produce are in video format, which includes everything from our trailer that teases our program, to the individual stories of student-athletes who battled their mental illness and used the support from the University of Michigan to succeed. Additionally, multiple films on coping skills round out our current lineup and we’re excited to reveal our newest videos later in 2017 touching on new subjects.

In our about section, you’re able to learn about our talented and dedicated team that works behind the scenes to make this program hum. Moreover, helpful articles and stories related to mental health and athletes’ struggles and successes are posted to our page. We look to share excerpts of important stories relevant to our project as well as news coverage of the program. Moving forward, we are excited to provide original thought leadership pieces as well as written content touching on various guidance, wellness and other subjects related to Athletes Connected.

We hope you find our new site easy to navigate, helpful to use and informative overall. If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to contact us. If you’re interested in furthering our mission to aid student-athlete mental health, consider a donation.

Thanks again!

The Athletes Connected Team