Tackling the invisible illness

WNBA star is latest to shed light on coping with anxiety and depression.

There were a lot of pleasant surprises in Liz Cambage’s Twitter replies last week. The Las Vegas Aces star tweeted a link to a story she wrote for The Players’ Tribune about her struggles with anxiety and depression.

The essay was honest, detailed and moving.

Most of the replies to Cambage on Twitter — which often brings out the worst in its users — were supportive and full of praise.

It was comforting to see that when a woman shared her truth, she had a lot of strangers come forward to say they’ve dealt with similar issues.

Mental health is an extremely important topic to discuss, and the more people who do — especially ones with a platform like Cambage — the more progress will be made in helping people everywhere deal with their struggles.

Over the past several years, more and more athletes have come forward to discuss their battles with anxiety, depression and other issues.

As they do, their fans are reminding them that they aren’t alone in fighting those battles. The open and honest conversation is important, as it is tearing away the negativity often associated with mental health disorders.

Kevin Love and DeMar DeRozan have spoken openly about mental health. Michael Phelps, Oscar De La Hoya and Terry Bradshaw are among several athletes who have discussed their mental health struggles.

Thanks to them and all the men and women in professional sports who have continued to speak out, things are changing.

According to a report by Sam Amick of The Athletic, the NBA

is amping up its mental health guidelines for this season. The new guidelines include more access for players to mental health professionals, an action plan for mental health emergencies, and ongoing discussions on how to handle these issues.

In May, the NFL and NFLPA initiated their own mental health plan, and it has been implemented for this season. NFL teams will be required to hire a behavioral health team clinician to be available to players at least 8-12 hours per week and to conduct mandatory educational sessions for coaches and players. Several teams already have some of these measures in place. For example, the Texans have employed a mental health clinician for several years.

MLB and MLS each have policies in place regarding the mental health of their players.

The WNBA needs to catch up. The league should consider instituting the NBA’s policy.

Several WNBA teams already provide access to mental health professionals. The Dallas Wings are one of them, and they even hosted a “Recovery Night” last week at one of their games, highlighting organizations in the area that help with substance abuse, addiction and other mental health disorders.

And the Big 3 has a very comprehensive policy it unveiled recently. One of the players in the Big 3 this season is former Rocket Royce White, who has spent years bringing awareness to mental health and pushing for better policies for athletes.

The initiatives that leagues are taking are a good step — some of many that need to be taken.

They aren’t perfect and they should constantly be discussed and adapted. There’s new information about mental health every day. Just as technology and medicine constantly change for physical injuries, mental health approaches do as well.

Teams should look at anxiety, depression, addiction and behavioral disorders the same way they would look at a torn ACL or sprained ankle.

Taking care of someone’s mind is an integral part of overall health. And for athletes to perform at the highest levels, everything needs to be functioning fully.

As athletes come forward about their issues and sports organizations address them as real health care concerns, the stigmas surrounding mental health will start to fade.

Sports has the power to bring change in a lot of ways, and helping break down the negative stereotypes of mental health struggles is one of them.

“We’re comfortable with the general idea that mental health care is important — and telling people that you’re dealing with mental health issues has become pretty acceptable. But underneath all of that? There’s still a lot of stuff that I think we don’t see, and don’t talk about. And that stuff can be ugly,” Cambage wrote.

“I know that, on the surface, people are ‘ready’ to talk about mental health. But are they really?”

Thanks to athletes like Cambage and those who have spoken before her, yes, they really are.

Ethan Miller / Getty Images “There’s still a lot of stuff that I think we don’t see, and don’t talk about,” Las Vegas Aces center Liz Cambage wrote in an essay for The Players’ Tribune on her struggles with anxiety and depression.