A challenging year prompts a look at mental health for Dartmouth student-athletes

.....“Coming into college from high school, you learn things like time management, you learn what works for you, but there’s so many changes going on in college,” she said. “My freshman year, mental health was pretty hard for me.”

She said she later found out that the other three freshmen on her team all had similar mental health struggles, but nobody wanted to talk about them because they didn’t want to be the one to drag down morale.

“It sometimes goes under the radar,” Monnin said. “You’re trying so hard to be the best on the outside so that you can play, but there’s this idea that you want to be as strong as possible. I think that leads to a lot of problems and people not talking about when things are hard.”

Mental health concerns for athletes can be especially acute in the Ivy League. Not only do athletes face the same juggling act that all student-athletes manage, but they also have the pressure of taking courses at an elite level. That academic pressure alone can take a toll on students’ mental health......

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Bethany`s Notes: College presents challenges. Help college students learn how to fail well. Help them understand they are a worthy human being no matter how they perform in their sport.