Comments Thread For: Depression and Boxing - The Silent Blow

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

Clinical Depression affects a number of people, especially young adult males. Depressive States are not as ingrained, but can be just as bleak. When the “black dog”—Winston Churchill’s nickname for his depression—bites it hits hard, burrowing into the recesses of your mind, forcing you into a mental prison of your own creation and infecting you with an illness that can only be glimpsed through the prism of your thoughts, moods and actions.

[Click Here To Read More]

[AndMarvisIsDown]

Terence Dooley that is one hell of an article.. Excellent.

[ragingbull1]

Terence Dooley that is one hell of an article.. Excellent.

I was thinking the exact same thing! Great read!!

[Kris Silver]

One of the best articles I've ever read on this site.

An absolute credit Terrence, cheers!

[jas]

Terence Dooley that is one hell of an article.. Excellent.

I was thinking the exact same thing! Great read!!

One of the best articles I've ever read on this site.

An absolute credit Terrence, cheers!

This.

Terence Dooley is a great writer.

Here's a recent article by the BBC on "Dealing with depression - boxing's ongoing fight.":

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/boxing/25590877

[MickyClifford]

This was an article in Boxing Monthly magazine a few months back. Good read.

[DannYankee]

Good read pretty interesting.

[Citizen Koba]

Very interesting article, and an issue that is widely overlooked or ignored.

I know it's not an issue I can see a lot of fighters wanting to admit to, but one that should be addressed. It's no secret that many sportspeople find it hard to deal with 'civilian' life but in an individual sport like boxing I could easily imagine the effect would be magnified, specially with the rollercoaster ups and downs both emotionally and physically.

As a long term chronic-depressive myself, I've an understanding of just how destructive this kind of mental illness can be. I think it's great that this is being identified and addressed as a problem in the sport, hopefully removing some of the stigma around it, rather than just brushing it under the carpet and leaving the fighters to deal with the fallout on their own.

[sdcluser]

Clinical Depression affects a number of people, especially young adult males. Depressive States are not as ingrained, but can be just as bleak. When the “black dog”—Winston Churchill’s nickname for his depression—bites it hits hard, burrowing into the recesses of your mind, forcing you into a mental prison of your own creation and infecting you with an illness that can only be glimpsed through the prism of your thoughts, moods and actions.

[Click Here To Read More]

CTE is a biatch....

[Bierstadt]

Thank you for trying to bring this into the limelight. I always like to see serious articles like this on the site. Sometimes BS comes across as TMZ for boxing, and this is a breath of fresh air and a very important issue to address.

Very interesting article, and an issue that is widely overlooked or ignored.

I know it's not an issue I can see a lot of fighters wanting to admit to, but one that should be addressed. It's no secret that many sportspeople find it hard to deal with 'civilian' life but in an individual sport like boxing I could easily imagine the effect would be magnified, specially with the rollercoaster ups and downs both emotionally and physically.

As a long term chronic-depressive myself, I've an understanding of just how destructive this kind of mental illness can be. I think it's great that this is being identified and addressed as a problem in the sport, hopefully removing some of the stigma around it, rather than just brushing it under the carpet and leaving the fighters to deal with the fallout on their own.

Individual sports are the toughest. There's no teammates you can share the loss with, nobody there to be by your side in good and bad times, nobody to rely on but yourself. It's just you against the world. I know you have your coaching team, but that's not the same as "playing" along side somebody. They're on the sidelines, and you're in the gauntlet.

As the article mentions, coaching staff should be properly trained in how to help their fighters handle the lows. All too often they're quick to jump to the center of attention in victory, but quickly retreat to the shadows should things go awry, leaving the boxer to face it themselves. They're not psychiatric professionals, but they should be able to distinguish between a positive amount of pressure to perform and going overboard to the point where the athlete has to fight a mental (expectations and fears of under performing) as well as a physical battle. Their job is to ensure the only thing on his mind is the opponent in front of him in that moment and nothing else.

And fighters should never be afraid of acknowledging a problem they feel inside is there. It's absolutely not a weakness. A strong individual is one who doesn't hide behind a fake facade. As a society we've come a long way in accepting that there indeed are legitimate mental ailments that don't manifest themselves as what we commonly see as a mental problem (i.e. insanity). Yet some stigma still remains, especially in terms of "manliness," which causes some to suppress legitimate issues. This only makes it worse.

As a final note, we as fans also have responsibility to ensure the fighters know that no matter the outcome, we appreciate them as true warriors who have nothing to be embarrassed about. Just stepping into the ring is more than 90% of the couch critics have done in their lives. Unfortunately this is the ugly side of sport. Many probably don't realize how much something like a simple postcard from a fan can do to lift up a broken fighter's spirit. I'd love to organize something like a collection drive. Not in terms of money or toys (they're not sick children in a hospital), but positive comments to be sent directly to boxers.