Addressing Mental Health in Student-Athletes: Strategies for College Campuses and the NCAA

The mental health of college athletes has become a real and growing concern, and I don't think that's an exaggeration. In 2022 alone, at least four NCAA student-athletes died by suicide, and it sparked conversations across the sport about what intense competition and sky-high expectations are actually doing to these young people's minds. The NCAA has responded by pushing to get mental health services onto campus and by working to strip away the stigma that keeps athletes from asking for help in the first place. Workshops and training for coaches and administrators have followed too, so the adults around these athletes actually know what to do when someone is struggling.

College administrators and coaches have real, specific steps they can take here:

- Make sure athletes have real access to mental health professionals who actually understand the sport-specific pressures they're under, not just generic counseling

- Build education into the program itself, seminars on nutrition and stress management, so problems get caught before they turn into depression or anxiety

- Create a genuinely safe space where an athlete can talk about what she's dealing with without fearing judgment or consequences

- Make mental health professionals, coaches, college chaplains, and Christian counselors all available and accessible, and point athletes toward resources through the NCAA, NJCAA, NAIA, or their own athletic department when campus support isn't enough

A real mental health evaluation should look at an athlete's full psychological picture, including any history of substance abuse or disordered eating. That evaluation is how warning signs and risk factors actually get caught early enough to build a treatment plan around a specific athlete instead of a generic one. Staff should be actively teaching stress management and helping athletes understand how nutrition affects both their performance and their mental state, not treating those as separate conversations.

Athletes at higher risk, whether that's substance abuse or something co-occurring like anxiety or depression, need additional safeguards. That might mean drug testing, referral options for off-campus therapy, peer mentoring, anonymous reporting when it's needed, or emergency contacts an athlete can reach any time, day or night. None of this is about surveillance for its own sake. The goal is a place where an athlete feels safe enough to actually say what's going on, and has real resources waiting when she does, so she can keep competing without sacrificing her wellbeing to do it.

I usually try to weave a Christian perspective through every point I make in these posts. This time, I wanted to try something different: look at the mental health picture and the responsibilities of these governing bodies and universities first, on their own terms, before bringing faith into it at all. Here are three verses I keep coming back to.

Psalm 37:4 says, "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." Even when the pressure of competition feels like too much, this is a reminder that trusting God doesn't leave an athlete empty-handed. He provides strength and direction that effort alone can't manufacture.

Proverbs 3:5-6 puts it this way: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." Trusting God doesn't mean an athlete stops working or stops thinking. It means she's not carrying the full weight of every outcome alone, on or off the field.

And Matthew 11:28 speaks directly to anyone in the middle of a real struggle: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." For an athlete wrestling with anxiety or depression, that's not a throwaway line. It's Jesus specifically naming the exhaustion she's carrying and offering rest for exactly that.

If you're a coach or administrator who already has a real relationship with an athlete, you'll know when it's the right moment to share what you believe and offer that kind of comfort. Scripture woven into an honest conversation can be an extra source of encouragement during a hard season, not a replacement for the professional help an athlete might need, but something alongside it. Physical, emotional, and spiritual support, all three together, is what actually gives an athlete the tools to succeed both on the field and off it.

College athletes face pressures that make them more prone to depression, anxiety, and substance use than people realize, and it's on all of us, coaches, administrators, and governing bodies alike, to make sure real help is never more than a conversation away.