The schedule an athlete lives under can be grueling, allowing them no personal time to themselves to recuperate. This is a common problem among pro athletes and anyone with a celebrity status. Because they are such a valuable commodity to their industry, they begin to be treated like a commodity: something that has been found to be successful and is therefore made overly available. Athlete’s managers and agents can be brutal on their athletes in the sense that they overfill their schedules with events and commitments, causing stress and lower mental health in the athlete.
The elements of an athlete’s job are difficult enough to cope with. The pressure to outperform themselves and their competition is immense, and the ramifications of failing at this can be devastating for an athlete’s mental health. Their work schedules are highly demanding, with coaches and managers on top of them during training and during competitions. A win is an incredible high, but a loss is devastating. The job can also cause horrible injuries from which there is no recovering.
Instead of being able to soothe themselves in their off time, like other working professionals, their personal calendars are filled up with PR events, media appearances and other events that seek interviews and appearances from professional athletes. Pro athletes often obtain a celebrity status that makes the expectations on their publicity very high. The life of a professional athlete is not a restful one. Some athletes meet these expectations with a sturdy foundation, but others become mentally overwhelmed and have no outlet for the stress and pressure of their profession.
The life schedules that professional athletes maintain are highly taxing. The average person cannot appreciate how stressful the pressures on an athlete’s body and mind are. Between the enormously high expectations on their physical performance, the grueling training, the threat of injury and the absence of free time, it is amazing that more athletes do not receive professional counseling.