Mental Health Performance - Reviewing Possibilities Of Psychedelics In Athlete Populations
About the Author
Ben Foodman is a licensed psychotherapist & performance specialist. He owns his private practice located in Charlotte North Carolina where he specializes in working with athletes to help them overcome mental blocks (the yips), PTSD, ADD / ADHD and achieve flow states through the techniques of Brainspotting & Neurofeedback. If you are interested in services, use the link here! Enjoy the article below!
Disclaimer: This issue of the TRAINING REPORT is an opinion piece only, and is NOT meant to as direct medical advice. Consult your healthcare physician with any treatment modalities you are exploring or considering.
Introduction: Athletes, Trauma & Psychedelics
In today’s competitive sports environment, athletes, coaches and other experts within the field of sport science are exploring all types of options to help performers gain the upper hand against their competitors. Some of these options include new applications in sport psychology such as Neurofeedback or Brainspotting. But one area that is beginning to emerge as a new point of interest is the use of psychedelics.
Researchers are beginning to revisit previous studies that found positive effects psychedelics potentially have on human psychology. For this Training Report, I want to take the time to review why I believe athlete mental health outcomes will potentially improve from the use of psychedelics. First I will review the basic scientific understanding of what is happening when we use psychedelics, then I will review why this is relevant for athletes as well as potential benefits. Let’s begin by exploring the neuroscience of psychedelics.
Part I. Neuroscience Of Psychedelics
I have previously discussed some of the neuroscience explanations for psychedelics in older Training Reports, but lets quickly review what may be happening when our body interacts with this drug (specifically Psilocybin). When focusing exclusively on psilocybin, the body metabolizes this into psilocin which is the bioactive compound. The psychic activity that occurs when using psilocybin is due to the interference with the neurotransmitter serotonin, which as a compound is similarly structured to psilocin. The psilocin then attaches to the serotonergic receptor 5HT2a, and functions as a partial agonist (a substance which initiates a physiological response when combined with a receptor).
According to Robert Rogers in The Fungal Pharmacy, the exact pathway from which the psychedelic experience occurs is not fully understood, but some would contend that “the sensor motor gating system of the brain is involved. This system normally suppresses the majority of sensory stimuli from conscious awareness, so we can operate at a normal level. The conscious mind is overwhelmed by sensory stimuli and cognitive processes normally hidden in the conscious part of the mind”. Another way to think about this is from a Freudian & Object Relations perspective when considering how our conscious and unconscious mind provide psychological structure for our personality along with our ability to interact with and recognize objects that are separate from individual self. But why would this be important for fully developed, adult athletes to consider from both a performance and health perspective?
Part II. Why Athletes May Benefit From Psychedelics
When most people think of sports, they rarely see the connection between athletics and trauma. But in my experience the two go nearly hand in hand. The experience of participating in sports can be incredibly rewarding and enhance one’s well-being. But for a significant percentage of sports participants, there can be many experiences of significant trauma. As I have covered extensively on previous Training Reports, because the sport environment is constructed in a way to psychologically and physically test people, some of these experiences will inevitably be negative.
For example, depending on the nature of a sport related injury, many athletes that have this experience (sport-related injuries) can have long-lasting psychological impacts. These negative experiences can in many cases be stress-overload events which can create traumatic memories. Psychedelics may have an important role to play here because research from Johns Hopkins seems to suggest that this substance is ideally tailored for individuals who are dealing with trauma.
Part III. Possible Performance Enhancement Benefits
When most people look at the field of sport psychology, there is a reflex to separate mental performance issues from mental health concerns. This is a serious flaw that many sport psychologists and consumers make. Mental health issues are not just for individuals that are dealing with major depressive disorder or schizophrenia. Individuals that are dealing with interpersonal relationship issues, mild performance anxiety, psychological trauma from injuries or deficiencies in confidence can benefit from mental health interventions, which will translate to performance enhancement.
It’s not that every athlete that is dealing with some form of trauma would need psychedelic interventions, but there are significant numbers of athletes who have sustained severe trauma but have been misled into thinking that trauma is not an issue that occurs in sport performance environments. Since psychedelics appear to have encouraging research behind their treatment outcomes on trauma, sport psychologists and sport psychiatrists need to take a closer look at the possible benefits of this and advocate for more research/possible treatment interventions involving psychedelics.
Note To Reader:
If you are an athlete reading this segment of the TRAINING REPORT, hopefully this content was helpful! I put the Training Report together because I felt like many of the discussions on issues such as the Yips/mental blocks, strength training & other subject matter on athlete performance concepts were really missing the mark on these ideas (e.g. how trauma is the direct cause of the Yips). If you are interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe below for when I put out new content on issues related to sport psychology & athlete performance! Also, if you are looking to work with a mental performance specialist, you are in the right place! USE THIS LINK to reach out to me to see if my services are the right fit for your goals!
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