What Simone Biles Can Teach Our Children About Mental Health
If our kids are old enough to watch the Olympics with us, chances are they’ve already seen a fair amount of coverage and reactions – both good and bad – to Simone Biles’ decision to withdraw from the competition due to mental health concerns. And this decision gives us the opportunity to talk to our children about the importance of prioritizing their mental and physical well-being.
“There is no health without mental health,” said Dr. Helen Egger, child psychiatrist and co-founder of Little Otter , which provides mental health support to children and families. “Mental health is part of our overall health and well-being.”
Our children may never understand what it means to be Olympic athletes, but there will surely come a time when they will feel the pressure to sacrifice their long-term health for short-term achievement. When that moment comes, they need to be prepared, and this is a lesson they can learn from Biles.
How Biles’ solution is to move away from gymnastics culture
Biles’ decision is a major shift from previous years, when Olympic gymnasts were expected to prioritize victory over everything else, including their own health and safety. The most notable example – during the Olympics in 1996, when an American gymnast Kerri Strug executed support jump to an ankle injury, after which her trainer had to endure on the podium.
Strug became a national hero, but she also never competed again – all for doing an exercise that, despite being told by her coach what she needed to do (and not let the rest of the team down), was unnecessary for her team. in clinching. gold medal.
As for Biles, her decision to leave was due to the development of the “twisty” case, in which the gymnast loses track of where she is in the air , as well as her bodily knowledge of how her body should be. twisting.
This phenomenon, about which little is known about how and why it happens, often arises from a mental block, and it can take days, weeks, or even months to work through. Meanwhile, cornering competition is not only daunting but also incredibly dangerous, as gymnasts fly through the air without realizing where the ground is.
It takes courage to prioritize health and safety over victory.
In the face of tremendous pressure to win, Biles showed tremendous courage to make the decision to make her own health and safety a priority in the face of tremendous pressure to win. This can be an example for our children that even in a world that glorifies victory at any cost, we are more than our successes.
“[Biles’s solution] empowers children to realize that we are not our accomplishments, we are not what we do, we are fat people,” Egger said. As Egger points out, our children need to know that they will be loved and accepted for who they are, not for what they want.
As adults, we have a responsibility to protect children from abuse.
Since Biles’ decision is an example for our children, it is also an opportunity for parents to reflect on what their responsibilities towards their children are when it comes to protecting them.
“This is not just a story about a young woman who is pushed into athletic stoicism and perfectionism,” Egger said. “She is a young woman who, along with many of her colleagues, has experienced many terrible bullying over the years. We need to think about the responsibility of adults to protect children. ”
Part of her motivation for competing in this year’s Olympics was to be the voice of change, Biles said in an interview, as she is one of hundreds of gymnasts who have said they have been sexually assaulted by US gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar. Although US gymnastics received reports on Nassar a year before the publication of the first investigation, they kept their knowledge a secret, during which he continued to mock him.
Biles is now the latest victim of abuse from Nassar, who is still involved in the sport, and as she told Hoda Kotb in an interview in April , “If there were no survivors left in the sport, they would just brush him off. side.”
For Biles, along with hundreds of other gymnasts who had been abused for decades, they needed adults in their lives to protect them, not turn a blind eye to what was happening. Instead, many of these adults let Biles down as well as her teammates.
“When children go through trauma, it affects [them] in every way,” Egger said. While we can never fully protect our children from injury, we have a responsibility to do our best. Should the worst happen, it is our responsibility to provide them with the help they need, and also teach them that it is courageous to seek help.
“When you say, ‘I’m not okay, I need help,’ it’s not a sign of weakness or selfishness,” Egger said. “It’s the most important thing you can do, and [Biles] did it and then got up the courage – knowing people would be unhappy with her – to be there and cheer up his teammates.”