There was a great thread on the Pitt football board about anxiety. So I wanted to extend to this board. With my current job I write grants to the CDC and work with millions of dollars to get mental health supports to kids in schools and communities. In addition I have suffered from crippling OCD and an Anxiety Disorder. In fact I am just coming out of a long depression. have just begun to be open with friends about that.
How does this relate to basketball. I don’t know why Hugley is out but I am guessing it or anxiety and depression. For people that suffer from that mental health condition it is mentally and physically exhausting. If that is what Hugley is dealing with I am impressed that he is on our bench and cheering. So for all of us on here I think we have to give Hugley a lot of empathy because my guess he isn’t playing due to those reasons.
I also think it’s important to distinguish between OCD and losing your confidence as a shooter. My son was unfortunate enough to get my OCD. His record for made 3 pointers during training is 42 makes out of 50 attempts. We have also in the same gym with the same conditions had days where we made less than 15. The major difference is he has an actual mental health diagnosis of OCD which is the flooding of intrusive and negative thoughts which greatly changes his ability to focus on his shooting form and his usual shooting technique. We often leave before he gets to 50 because emotionally he gets so overwhelmed with these OCD thoughts.
When we look at a player like Greg Elliot or Nate Santos I think we must also take into consideration hey may be prone to OCD and high anxiety mental health challenges. The severity comes and goes. That’s why I am still hopeful with Santos and think Elliot’s struggles recently are more mental health related and he will work through those. His shot form hasn’t changed so what’s going on.
If you want two real big examples of how mental health changes and negatively impacts a player google Markelle adults Shot or Google Ben Simmons. Even our Sam Young probably had OCD which caused him to play hours and hours of basketball outside normal practices and games leading to bad knee tendinitis. Dixon had to order him to stop all the extra stuff and he got healthy and took off.
I am bringing all this up because we look just at the basketball skills and performance. But when players struggle sometimes we don’t look at some of the other things they may be dealing with. I am on my way to pick up my son from the basketball gym right now. He has been here since 8:00am because he had an off shooting night in his game last night. Mental health is no joke.
How does this relate to basketball. I don’t know why Hugley is out but I am guessing it or anxiety and depression. For people that suffer from that mental health condition it is mentally and physically exhausting. If that is what Hugley is dealing with I am impressed that he is on our bench and cheering. So for all of us on here I think we have to give Hugley a lot of empathy because my guess he isn’t playing due to those reasons.
I also think it’s important to distinguish between OCD and losing your confidence as a shooter. My son was unfortunate enough to get my OCD. His record for made 3 pointers during training is 42 makes out of 50 attempts. We have also in the same gym with the same conditions had days where we made less than 15. The major difference is he has an actual mental health diagnosis of OCD which is the flooding of intrusive and negative thoughts which greatly changes his ability to focus on his shooting form and his usual shooting technique. We often leave before he gets to 50 because emotionally he gets so overwhelmed with these OCD thoughts.
When we look at a player like Greg Elliot or Nate Santos I think we must also take into consideration hey may be prone to OCD and high anxiety mental health challenges. The severity comes and goes. That’s why I am still hopeful with Santos and think Elliot’s struggles recently are more mental health related and he will work through those. His shot form hasn’t changed so what’s going on.
If you want two real big examples of how mental health changes and negatively impacts a player google Markelle adults Shot or Google Ben Simmons. Even our Sam Young probably had OCD which caused him to play hours and hours of basketball outside normal practices and games leading to bad knee tendinitis. Dixon had to order him to stop all the extra stuff and he got healthy and took off.
I am bringing all this up because we look just at the basketball skills and performance. But when players struggle sometimes we don’t look at some of the other things they may be dealing with. I am on my way to pick up my son from the basketball gym right now. He has been here since 8:00am because he had an off shooting night in his game last night. Mental health is no joke.
