Best Docus on YouTube: Why athletes at the top of their game need to start thinking about retirement | ABC News
What to watch? Free and full-length documentaries on YouTube from original sources like the BBC, ABC News, Vice, ARTE and Netflix. Best docus on YouTube. Free docus. Full-length from original and truthworthy sources.
Source: ABC People & Profiles, 2021-08-28 06:00
Why athletes at the top of their game need to start thinking about retirement | ABC News
- Language: EN
- Views: 9321
- Likes: 132
- Duration: 4:58
From the highs of sporting glory, psychologists fear the majority of elite athletes will suffer worrying mental and physical health issues in retirement.
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/abcnewsindepth Read more from here: https://ab.co/3zw8Tqw
For retiring athletes, it is not just a career change, but a complete lifestyle adjustment and University of Queensland psychologist Dr Stacey Parker said it was due to the "sporting dream" being so encompassing.
"It's such a big part of their identity," she said.
"The majority [of athletes] do report feeling some significant distress and identity loss when making that transition."
Research has found around 16 per cent of athletes suffer severe mental health issues, like substance abuse, and even homelessness in life outside competitive sport.
Unfortunately, the remaining 84 per cent are not exempt from a negative experience.
Dr Parker said it was because a really important part of their identity was gone.
"Also really quite strong support networks, in terms of teammates or other colleagues in sport, coaches, the sporting organisation that they were part of, they lose a significant source of their social support as well," she said.
It was also not uncommon for elite athletes to notice dramatic physical changes.
Athletes go from having daily doses of serotonin from all the exercise and when this suddenly decreased, it played with the chemistry in the human body, most notably, their mood.
With the reduced training, their nutrition would also need to adapt, but psychologist Amelia Moyse said disordered eating could be a byproduct.
"Because their intake needs have changed so significantly, and they do struggle at times to find the new balance at that phase of life," she said.
ABC News In-depth takes you deeper on the big stories, with long-form journalism from Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent, Australian Story, Planet America and more, and explainers from ABC News Video Lab.
Watch more ABC News content ad-free on iview: https://ab.co/2OB7Mk1
For more from ABC News, click here: https://ab.co/2kxYCZY
Get breaking news and livestreams from our ABC News channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NewsOnABC
Like ABC News on Facebook: http://facebook.com/abcnews.au
Follow ABC News on Instagram: http://instagram.com/abcnews_au
Follow ABC News on Twitter: http://twitter.com/abcnews
Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated.
#LifeAfterEliteSport
#Explainer
#ABCNews