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Depression among retired athletes

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  • 25-09-2018 12:21am
    #1
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭


    https://spikes.iaaf.org/post/david-gillick-the-other-side

    Really great insight from David Gillick here.

    So many lessons that hopefully others can learn. Having athletics as your identity is not healthy. We need lots of other things going on too.


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    #2
    pconn062
    Registered Users Posts: 5,370 ✭✭✭pconn062


    Hardly surprising. If you are an athlete and prone to depression, retirement must be very tough. Type-A, goal driven individuals now find themselves lacking that focus and goal every day to train for the next meet, championships etc. It must be very hard to just float along when coming from such a structured lifestyle.

    Fair play to David for speaking out. Funnily he's one of the more successful athletes at building a career post retirement, along with Derval. Just goes to show, you never know what's going on behind closed doors.


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    #3
    average_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 12,845 ✭✭✭✭average_runner


    Fair play for him coming out. Depression is something we tend to push under the carpet in Ireland, especially men.


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    #4
    Chivito550
    Registered Users Posts: 7,694 ✭✭✭Chivito550


    pconn062 wrote: »
    Hardly surprising. If you are an athlete and prone to depression, retirement must be very tough. Type-A, goal driven individuals now find themselves lacking that focus and goal every day to train for the next meet, championships etc. It must be very hard to just float along when coming from such a structured lifestyle.

    Fair play to David for speaking out. Funnily he's one of the more successful athletes at building a career post retirement, along with Derval. Just goes to show, you never know what's going on behind closed doors.

    I recall Derval was doing a masters at the time of her absolute peak (2009/2010). She wrote about it in her blog at the time. Shows how important it is, even for the very best, to have more than just athletics going on.

    This stretches to non-athletes too. Having your job as your identity is extremely dangerous. I always hate that question "what do you do?". Why is it always assumed that that question has to be about what you do to earn a living. People DO lots of other stuff but work. Work is not the only thing we DO.


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    #5
    average_runner
    Registered Users Posts: 12,845 ✭✭✭✭average_runner


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    I recall Derval was doing a masters at the time of her absolute peak (2009/2010). She wrote about it in her blog at the time. Shows how important it is, even for the very best, to have more than just athletics going on.

    This stretches to non-athletes too. Having your job as your identity is extremely dangerous. I always hate that question "what do you do?". Why is it always assumed that that question has to be about what you do to earn a living. People DO lots of other stuff but work. Work is not the only thing we DO.

    Totally agree, my view on work, its a gateway to other things, ie it provides a means so we can do things we like no matter what that is.


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    #6
    MY BAD
    Registered Users Posts: 1,178 ✭✭✭MY BAD


    "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell


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    #7
    sideswipe
    Registered Users Posts: 2,431 ✭✭✭sideswipe


    https://twitter.com/RTERayDarcyShow/status/1039279360274882561


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    #8
    OOnegative
    Registered Users Posts: 4,834 ✭✭✭OOnegative


    Chivito550 wrote: »
    Having your job as your identity is extremely dangerous.

    Very true & what led me spiral into depression, my job was the be all and end all for me for a long time. I knew for a while something was up but kept pushing it away and ignoring it till it finally got to much for me and resulted in a very difficult time in my life. It’s only when I broadened my mind a small bit and made friends outside of my line of work(many from here) did things take a positive turn for me again. Having a variety of things to occupy your life & mindset is very important.


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    #9
    echat
    Registered Users Posts: 117 ✭✭echat


    OOnegative wrote: »
    Very true & what led me spiral into depression, my job was the be all and end all for me for a long time. I knew for a while something was up but kept pushing it away and ignoring it till it finally got to much for me and resulted in a very difficult time in my life. It’s only when I broadened my mind a small bit and made friends outside of my line of work(many from here) did things take a positive turn for me again. Having a variety of things to occupy your life & mindset is very important.

    Having one thing very intense is more interesting but if it is physical then it is going to be relatively short-lived but much more interesting and memorable than a steady state :D

    Big hitters are not going to achieve if they are worrying about afterwards.


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