The Cognitive Rampage Podcast #94: Athletes Depression

Adam Lowery and Guest Naudi Aguilar, Founder of Functional Patterns draws mental health impacts to the environment created by Crossfit, mentioning also the physical risks and damage overtime, as Adam sees issues with having developing children performing Crossfit in school. This eventually led Adam to reveal his claim from many years ago to what he has dubbed “Athletes Depression”. He ends up announcing his third solo book due out in May in full title and description, even explaining the differential diagnosis etiology as it relates directly to athletes and their higher risk of developing serious and severe mental health issues, many times becoming worse overtime due to misdiagnosis.

Adam has been talking about Athletes Depression for years. He has claimed that this should be an actual diagnosis within the Diagnostic Statistic Manual for mental health disorders or the DSM. Describing an different etiology as compared to the differential (and most currently related) diagnosis of Identity Dissociative Disorder and misdiagnosis of Bipolar and/with ADHD. Adam states that being raised as an athlete from childhood to early adulthood or as far as professional sets the stage and makes an individual 50% more likely to experience severe symptomatic mental health issues. The manifestation of Athletes Depression contains a common cycle of misdiagnosis. When dealing with an individual that since adolescences has been trained to value self by performance, and by doing so has developed a very resistive nature or cognitive dissonance toward perceived weakness, in this sense categorized by the existing social stigma surrounding mental health. This resistive training if you will, means most athletes do not seek mental health help. The lengthy exposure to hyper vigilant and highly rewarding states conditions the body and mind to need, and to continue seek and many times create environments that will return the individual to these states. In short, a cycle begins to emerge and many times begins with the first diagnosis of ADD or ADHD, and eventually leading to a Bipolar diagnosis/misdiagnosis. When in reality the athlete is, has been and will continue to cycle this way due to “Athletes Depression”, NOT bipolar disorder.
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