Tackle What’s Next

In honor of #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth and #AthleteMentalHealthWeek #AMHW, we’re sharing out some of our favorite clips from an event we hosted last May with our friends at @thehiddenopponent. We had some incredible athletes join us to share their experience, advice and perspective around navigating mental health as a current or former athlete.

This week, we’re sharing two clips around the importance of speaking up and sharing our experiences. NCAA swimmers Nina Kucheran and Abdelrahman Elaraby share why they speak out about their experiences and how they hope to normalize the conversation.

Nina opened up about her battle with perfection that can be common for many high performing athletes. “I was so obsessed with the idea of perfection and not letting anyone see the cracks that were slowly forming that it led me to self destruction. If I had been better at letting people in, or not being so obsessed with the idea of perfection, or just hearing someone else going through similar struggles - it probably would have helped me a lot sooner.” @ninakucheran

Abdelrahman shared why he shares his story. “My whole goal is to normalize this as much as I can. You can’t break a stigma around something that we don’t know or if it seems taboo or like a secret. I speak about this so bluntly and boldly as much as I can. Sometimes it triggers a lot of people, sometimes it triggers me too, but I try to do it as safe and nice as possible, so we can normalize the conversation.” @haridiiii

Why is speaking out about mental health and normalize the conversation important for you? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.

And be sure to follow Nina and Abdelrahman, as well as The Hidden Opponent to learn more about what they are doing to change the conversation around mental health in the world of athletes. 💚