Mental well-being needs greater focus

After Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and two of his compatriots -- Nic Maddinson and Will Pucovski -- took a break from the game to deal with their mental health issues, cricketers’ mental well-being has come into sharp focus.While cricket boards invest heavily in ensuring players’ physical fitness by roping in physios, trainers and dieticians to go with world-class training facilities and rehab centres, not much is being done to address a modern-day cricketer’s mental stress in the face of a hectic schedule, intense scrutiny and the pressure to perform.There are of course odd examples a sports psychologist travelling with teams for a short duration or a mental conditioning coach being hired but this very approach by the authorities towards the mental health of a cricketer, including in the western countries, reflects how casually the issue is dealt with. That someone like Virat Kohli didn’t have the courage to admit to his mental health problems in 2014, by then the heir apparent to M S Dhoni, shows how deeply stigmatised are such matters.“We should avoid using phrases like someone is mentally strong or weak,” says former India opener Sujith Somasundar, now the Education head at the National Cricket Academy. His division, among other things, prioritises sports psychology as well.“The problem starts with branding people either strong or weak,” emphasises Sujith while analysing why Indian sportsmen in general, and Indians in particular, are reluctant to come out with their mental issues. “No one wants to be perceived as someone weak. So, he lives in denial. It’s all about how an individual looks at certain situation. Each individual reacts differently to stimuli and results vary from person to person. It’s not about being strong or weak, it’s about the way you react to a situation,” he says, while explaining how these innocuous statements can affect an individual’s thinking.The problem, Sujith feels, isn’t just casual talk like labelling someone. Cultural background too influences how an individual deals with mental illness.“The one positive thing is that our social structure is very strong,” he points out. “Even after you turn 20 or 25 or 30, you still have strong family bonds – be it with your parents or siblings. The emotional support is always there when you share your insecurities. One of the reasons why you may not see many Indians coming out in the open about their mental issues is maybe because they get that help within the family set-up.“That being said, ours is also a “face-saving” culture. People can get judgmental and this fear of being branded as someone with mental issues can hold back individuals from revealing their problems.”Sujith, who till recently headed Learning and Development wing at software giant Wipro, feels there are not many qualified professionals to treat mental illness and the few that are available are not approached because it’s not in the system to seek such help.We have seen many cricketers from England, Australia and New Zealand to break silence on their mental health issues but there is no recorded instance of an Indian cricketer coming out in open about such a condition.“We take care of our physical health quite well. If you suffer even a small cut, you immediately apply a bandaid on it. But when you are emotionally hurt, you try to ignore it. You try to be brave, but it’s false bravado. Or you have people around who will advise you to “shake it off.” They tend to trivialise it. But when the problem is deeper than just anxiety, it can get worse. In that case you need a clinical psychologist. If it’s just anxiety or stress, a sports psychologist can treat it but when it’s physiological, where there are hormonal imbalances and such, you will require clinical side of the treatment as well. And people tend to avoid this process because there is a social stigma attached to it.“If you have diabetes, you have to take insulin medicine for that. Depression many times is also like that. You can’t say positive thinking will solve all the problems. For people suffering from clinical depression, both counselling and medication are required,” he offers. Alex Kountouris, Cricket Australia's sports science and medicine manager, also stresses on people to be open about their issues as “silence isn’t the answer.”"There is much society still needs to learn in relation to mental health, but we know enough to say with great certainty that silence is not the answer," he was quoted as saying by AFP.While it’s heartening to see many prominent players like Maxwell talk about this much-avoided topic, the problem is so deep rooted that it takes more than the voice of these cricketers to uproot it. It needs social awareness, easy access to treatment and stripping it of any shame because mental health issues are like any other physical ailments that require medical care and attention.