DDN
NCAA athletes slowly accepting mental wellness' role in careers
By Doug Harris
Staff Writer
COLUMBUS | Ohio State sport psychologist Sam Maniar expected to see a few arched eyebrows when he first tried mental-imagery techniques with the football team.
<!--endtext-->
<!-- inset --> <!--begintext--> What he didn't expect was an endorsement by one of the team's stars.
"One of the seniors — I won't reveal his name — came running across the field and said, 'That imagery works," said Maniar, who has become known in athletic circles as Dr. Sam since his hiring in 2002. "And this was someone who was respected on the team, who's gone on to play in the NFL."
Maniar and his colleague, Jennifer Carter, do more than mental imagery, or coaching athletes to visualize success. They work with about 20 of the school's 36 teams on any number of mental roadblocks. And the two licensed counseling psychologists believe their frequent contact is helping athletes become less squeamish about setting up therapy sessions when facing a personal crisis.
Even rugged football players are making regular office visits.
"If I didn't have the performance-enhancement thing, I don't think they'd come," Maniar said. "It's a safe way for them to get to know me. With that stigma of the shrink and the black leather couch, it's very scary for anyone to seek out therapy, let alone a male athlete in a culture where you're supposed to fight through pain."
A recent study by Kansas State University found mental-health issues among all college students increasing at an alarming rate. Researchers measuring a 13-year period found depression cases had doubled, suicides had tripled and the number of sexual assaults had quadrupled.
Carter said 15 to 20 percent of roughly 940 athletes at OSU are clinically depressed, and Maniar said evidence suggests that those who play sports may be more prone to personality disorders than those who don't.
The NCAA increased its efforts to raise awareness about mental-health issues after being approached by the mother of former Western Kentucky basketball player Nathan Eisert, who committed suicide in 2002.
Maniar chaired a meeting of sport psychologists last year to discuss preventive steps, and the group resolved to equip trainers with materials to screen for depression and make referrals.
The NCAA has included a link on its Web site to a video produced by Eisert's mother called Nathan's Story. It is a plea for coaches and administrators to intervene when they spot symptoms of depression.
Chris Carr, who started OSU's sport-psychology department in 1995 and now works at the Indiana Neuroscience Institute in Indianapolis, said that while athletes are often treated like celebrities, it doesn't exempt them from the emotional toll of life.
"The media reports the high success and high rewards (in sports), but what the media doesn't report is the stress that 17-, 18- and 19-year-old kids are under," said Carr, who still works two days a week with Purdue University athletes. "When a 6-foot-6, 320-pound male comes into my office, he looks like a man, but that doesn't mean his developmental challenges are any different."
When Carr was hired at Washington State in 1992, becoming the first full-time licensed psychologist working in the athletic department of a PAC-10 Conference school, he believed he was on the ground floor of a medical initiative that would sweep the nation.
But 14 years later, no more than a dozen full-time psychologists are on athletic-department payrolls across the country. Another 20 or so work part-time.
"Some programs believe having a psychologist on staff would be to admit we have a problem — and we don't have a problem," Carr said sarcastically. "So you see (issues) surface in other ways, like public-intoxication arrests and DUIs."
Dr. Chris Kaeding, director of the OSU Sports Medicine Center and the head physician for the football team, often sees issues that go beyond his scope of expertise.
In addition to depression and anxiety, he said, some Buckeye athletes are engaging in self-mutilation or cutting, which experts say is usually a sign of past sexual abuse.
Eating disorders are also prevalent, and not just among females.
"We're seeing male athletes having that struggle as well," Kaeding said. "There's such an emphasis on body image, and they're taking it over the top."
But OSU was forced to cut one of its athletic-department psychologists last year, leaving the school with the equivalent of 1.75 full-time positions.
"Ideally, we'd like to provide athletes with everything," Kaeding said, "but at the same time, there are budgetary realities."
Carr, though, doesn't buy that notion.
"If you asked athletes if having a full-time psychologist — with the availability of counseling — would be a positive position, 80 percent would agree," he said. "It's funding. But I have a hard time believing there isn't enough funding when I see new buildings going up every day."
DDN
7/2
More OSU athletes seeking help from sports psychologists
By Doug Harris
Staff Writer
COLUMBUS | As athletes, their skills are clearly above average. But speed and athletic ability can't mask what's going on inside the heads of Ohio State University athletes, and that's where Sam Maniar and Jennifer Carter come in.
<!--endtext-->
<!-- inset --> <!--begintext--> Maniar and Carter are OSU sport psychologists. They provide not only performance-enhancement tips, but also address mental-health issues individually with athletes. And they're having no trouble keeping their appointment books full.
Of about 940 athletes at OSU, the sport-psychology department treated 180 during the 2004-05 school year. That's nearly 20 percent of those playing sports and represents a 41 percent hike over the number seen in 2000-01.
One out of four office visits were performance-related, according to records from 2000 to 2003. But the others sought help for issues such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and self-mutilation.
The OSU Counseling and Consultation Service sees on average only about 5 to 6 percent of the rest of the student population, said Mike Folmar, associate director for clinical services, although there usually is a waiting list because of staffing shortages.
Few schools have one licensed counseling psychologist working in the athletic department, much less two. But Carter believes the troubles plaguing OSU athletes could be found in any college locker room.
"A lot of people believe being a student athlete is a very glamorous position — and there is some status they get — but there's also a lot more pressure and stress on these individuals," she said.
"Most of them handle the pressure really admirably. But at times, like any college student, the pressures they face overwhelm their coping resources."
NCAA athletes slowly accepting mental wellness' role in careers
By Doug Harris
Staff Writer
COLUMBUS | Ohio State sport psychologist Sam Maniar expected to see a few arched eyebrows when he first tried mental-imagery techniques with the football team.
<!--endtext-->
<!-- inset --> <!--begintext--> What he didn't expect was an endorsement by one of the team's stars.
"One of the seniors — I won't reveal his name — came running across the field and said, 'That imagery works," said Maniar, who has become known in athletic circles as Dr. Sam since his hiring in 2002. "And this was someone who was respected on the team, who's gone on to play in the NFL."
Maniar and his colleague, Jennifer Carter, do more than mental imagery, or coaching athletes to visualize success. They work with about 20 of the school's 36 teams on any number of mental roadblocks. And the two licensed counseling psychologists believe their frequent contact is helping athletes become less squeamish about setting up therapy sessions when facing a personal crisis.
Even rugged football players are making regular office visits.
"If I didn't have the performance-enhancement thing, I don't think they'd come," Maniar said. "It's a safe way for them to get to know me. With that stigma of the shrink and the black leather couch, it's very scary for anyone to seek out therapy, let alone a male athlete in a culture where you're supposed to fight through pain."
A recent study by Kansas State University found mental-health issues among all college students increasing at an alarming rate. Researchers measuring a 13-year period found depression cases had doubled, suicides had tripled and the number of sexual assaults had quadrupled.
Carter said 15 to 20 percent of roughly 940 athletes at OSU are clinically depressed, and Maniar said evidence suggests that those who play sports may be more prone to personality disorders than those who don't.
The NCAA increased its efforts to raise awareness about mental-health issues after being approached by the mother of former Western Kentucky basketball player Nathan Eisert, who committed suicide in 2002.
Maniar chaired a meeting of sport psychologists last year to discuss preventive steps, and the group resolved to equip trainers with materials to screen for depression and make referrals.
The NCAA has included a link on its Web site to a video produced by Eisert's mother called Nathan's Story. It is a plea for coaches and administrators to intervene when they spot symptoms of depression.
Chris Carr, who started OSU's sport-psychology department in 1995 and now works at the Indiana Neuroscience Institute in Indianapolis, said that while athletes are often treated like celebrities, it doesn't exempt them from the emotional toll of life.
"The media reports the high success and high rewards (in sports), but what the media doesn't report is the stress that 17-, 18- and 19-year-old kids are under," said Carr, who still works two days a week with Purdue University athletes. "When a 6-foot-6, 320-pound male comes into my office, he looks like a man, but that doesn't mean his developmental challenges are any different."
When Carr was hired at Washington State in 1992, becoming the first full-time licensed psychologist working in the athletic department of a PAC-10 Conference school, he believed he was on the ground floor of a medical initiative that would sweep the nation.
But 14 years later, no more than a dozen full-time psychologists are on athletic-department payrolls across the country. Another 20 or so work part-time.
"Some programs believe having a psychologist on staff would be to admit we have a problem — and we don't have a problem," Carr said sarcastically. "So you see (issues) surface in other ways, like public-intoxication arrests and DUIs."
Dr. Chris Kaeding, director of the OSU Sports Medicine Center and the head physician for the football team, often sees issues that go beyond his scope of expertise.
In addition to depression and anxiety, he said, some Buckeye athletes are engaging in self-mutilation or cutting, which experts say is usually a sign of past sexual abuse.
Eating disorders are also prevalent, and not just among females.
"We're seeing male athletes having that struggle as well," Kaeding said. "There's such an emphasis on body image, and they're taking it over the top."
But OSU was forced to cut one of its athletic-department psychologists last year, leaving the school with the equivalent of 1.75 full-time positions.
"Ideally, we'd like to provide athletes with everything," Kaeding said, "but at the same time, there are budgetary realities."
Carr, though, doesn't buy that notion.
"If you asked athletes if having a full-time psychologist — with the availability of counseling — would be a positive position, 80 percent would agree," he said. "It's funding. But I have a hard time believing there isn't enough funding when I see new buildings going up every day."
DDN
7/2
More OSU athletes seeking help from sports psychologists
By Doug Harris
Staff Writer
COLUMBUS | As athletes, their skills are clearly above average. But speed and athletic ability can't mask what's going on inside the heads of Ohio State University athletes, and that's where Sam Maniar and Jennifer Carter come in.
<!--endtext-->
<!-- inset --> <!--begintext--> Maniar and Carter are OSU sport psychologists. They provide not only performance-enhancement tips, but also address mental-health issues individually with athletes. And they're having no trouble keeping their appointment books full.
Of about 940 athletes at OSU, the sport-psychology department treated 180 during the 2004-05 school year. That's nearly 20 percent of those playing sports and represents a 41 percent hike over the number seen in 2000-01.
One out of four office visits were performance-related, according to records from 2000 to 2003. But the others sought help for issues such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts and self-mutilation.
The OSU Counseling and Consultation Service sees on average only about 5 to 6 percent of the rest of the student population, said Mike Folmar, associate director for clinical services, although there usually is a waiting list because of staffing shortages.
Few schools have one licensed counseling psychologist working in the athletic department, much less two. But Carter believes the troubles plaguing OSU athletes could be found in any college locker room.
"A lot of people believe being a student athlete is a very glamorous position — and there is some status they get — but there's also a lot more pressure and stress on these individuals," she said.
"Most of them handle the pressure really admirably. But at times, like any college student, the pressures they face overwhelm their coping resources."
