Mental Health Awareness Month 2020


In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month 2020, this May, ESPN highlights the stories of athletes, coaches and other sports figures managing their mental health and well-being. These stories reflect a broad range of subjects and experiences, including new challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing. The hope is that these stories help raise awareness, provide information and improve understanding about mental health, how sports figures seek treatment and the approaches that work for them.

Making mental health a priority during the pandemic

ESPN spoke with Rebecca Colasanto, a licensed clinical social worker and the system director of behavioral health for Bristol Health, about how to manage and respond to the anxiety and stress that come with these rare times. Colasanto shares how athletes, coaches and sport fans can cope and manage anxiety and stress during the outbreak of COVID-19.

Olympic champion Michael Phelps on seeking careplay

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Decorated Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps joins SVP to discuss what it will be like for the athletes this coming year after the 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021.

For more information: The National Institute of Mental Health

Mental health and the NBAMay is Mental Health Awareness Month 2020. Joey Guidone

ESPN senior writer Jackie MacMullan explores mental health and the NBA in this five-part series that first appeared in August 2018.

Oh yes, there’s Laughter PermittedESPN

In a special episode of the Laughter Permitted podcast, mental skills coach Colleen Hacker joins Julie Foudy and Lynn Olszowy — at a safe social distance via Skype — to share strategies used by elite athletes that can be applied to dealing with the anxiety and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.

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Hacker, an expert on the psychology of peak performance, works with professional and Olympic athletes in a variety of sports including the NFL, MLB, PGA, LPGA, U.S. swimming, U.S. speed skating, U.S. track and field, U.S. soccer and U.S. hockey. She offers her unique insights on how we can positively frame our mindsets, use laughter as the antidote to stress and view social distancing as an opportunity.

‘We have to try to help each other’“You’re not supposed to show your weaknesses or show defeat [in hockey],” Robin Lehner said. “It’s a culture thing. We have to try to help each other, and it all comes back to education and being open. And that’s why I talk about it.” AP Photo/Amr Alfiky

How NHL goalie Robin Lehner used his platform to drive a conversation about mental health. ESPN hockey reporter Emily Kaplan explains.

Mental, physical health key during shutdownGold Coast Suns players Touk Miller and Peter Wright train at their home. Chris Hyde/Getty Images

With on-field action shuttered for the foreseeable future, the AFL’s Gold Coast Suns have turned their attention to ensuring players are in the best possible physical and mental shape ahead of a competition restart, Matt Walsh writes.

‘I was just in a real bad place’Andrew Hancock for ESPN

Dallas Cowboys pass-rusher Randy Gregory sought help for depression, drugs and other issues. In this story by ESPN senior writer Elizabeth Merrill, which originally posted Dec. 4, 2018, he was playing football again, fighting to stay clean and trying to help his team to the playoffs.

After the hashtags, are you ready to listen?Lanesha Reagan says life after NCAA volleyball and far away from family and friends has been more difficult than she expected. Courtesy Lanesha Reagan

In this first-person essay marking World Mental Health Day in 2018, former Oregon State volleyball player Lanesha Reagan shares how she started a movement at school with her candid blog about mental illness.

Megan Anderson: ‘I was just so scared to do anything’Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

UFC fighter Megan Anderson discussed her 2010 suicide attempt and subsequent depression in an interview on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show in late 2019.

Divided we dance, united we moveAshleigh Hughes, left, and Tricia Cremeans created the high-intensity interval training dance class in 2013. Yasiris Torres

You see them everywhere, homemade workout videos of people missing their long-lost classes now dancing or spinning or exercising alone. Living in the age of the coronavirus feels both hopeful and hopelessly lonely. Still, as ESPN senior writer Allison Glock shares in this essay, we find a way to dance together.

The story of Madison HolleranLincoln Agnew for ESPN The Magazine

On Instagram, Madison Holleran’s life looked ideal: star athlete, bright student, beloved friend. But as Kate Fagan wrote in this 2015 story for espnW, the photos hid the reality of someone struggling to go on.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Solomon Thomas passionate in his fight for suicide preventionCourtesy Thomas Family

NFL defensive lineman Solomon Thomas is now a distinct and important voice in shining a light on the issues of mental health and suicide, writes ESPN’s Nick Wagoner in May 2019. Ella Thomas, Solomon’s sister, died by suicide on Jan. 23, 2018. She was 24.



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