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ADHD
After the Rio Olympics, Russian hackers released private medical information about several athletes which they had taken from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s files. It revealed Simone Biles had tested positive for Ritalin, a drug commonly used to treat ADHD.
Biles reacted on social media and confirmed her diagnosis. "Having ADHD, and taking medicine for it, is nothing to be ashamed of,” she tweeted. “[and] nothing that I'm afraid to let people know," Biles revealed later in an interview with Understood that she has never seen having ADHD as a disadvantage, in fact, quite the opposite. "If you start to think of it as a superpower,” she said. “Then that's kind of cool."
A Story to Tell
After her four Olympic golds in 2016, Simone Biles gave herself a year away from competing. Gymnastics had been her entire life for fourteen years and it was time to take a break. Though she was still a teenager, Biles used the latter half of 2016 to write her autobiography.
"I want people to reach for their dreams and there are so many people who have inspired me with their love and encouragement along the way and I want to pass on that inspiration to readers,” said Simone of her decision. The book, Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance, was co-written with journalist Michelle Burford. It went to the top of The New York Times young adult best-seller list in January 2017. That year Simone also competed on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars.
#MeToo
“Most of you know me as a happy, giggly, and energetic girl, but lately I’ve felt a bit broken and the me I try to shut off the voice in my head the louder it screams.” This was the beginning of a statement Simone Biles posted on Twitter on Jan 15, 2018. “I am not afraid to tell my story anymore,” she continued.
Back On the Mats
In 2018, Simone Biles returned to competitive gymnastics and earned herself a place back in the World Championships team, this time traveling to Doha, Qatar. While chasing her fourth gold in the all-around final, Biles fell on both the beam and her vault, but still won the competition on points due to performing at a difficulty level far higher than the other athletes. She left Doha with her fourth all-around gold and her fourth-floor exercise gold.
The USA also took the team gold again. The 2018 competition gave Biles another significant achievement when she won gold in the vault for the first time, making her the first U.S. gymnast to win gold in all four events. She also took bronze on the balance beam that year.
A Clean Sweep
Despite the IGF undermining the difficulty level of her new skills, Simone Biles traveled to Stuttgart, Germany, for her fifth World Championships in 2019. She had a point to prove and she did not hold back. As was by now traditional. Biles won the all-around gold and the floor exercise gold, and the U.S. athletes won another team gold.
For the first time, however, Biles also won gold in both the vault and the balance beam, making it the first major championship in which she won four individual golds alongside her team medal.
..."Growing up, I didn't see very many Black gymnasts," she told her interviewer. "So whenever I did, I felt really inspired to go out there and want to be as good as them. I remember watching Gabby Douglas win the 2012 Olympics, and I was like, 'If she can do it, I can do it.’”
A Whole Life to Lead
As early as 2019, Simone Biles had admitted her career was taking its toll on her body. "Pain is just something I live with and that is pretty odd for my age, right?” she told the Daily Mail. “It feels weird if I'm not in pain." This is one factor in the record-breaking competitor’s indicated intentions to retire after the Tokyo Olympics.
When she does retire, Biles doesn’t intend to put her feet up entirely. "Gymnastics is just one part of my life, and I'm having as much fun with it as possible," she said in an interview with Us Weekly. "At some point, I'll have to go get a real job."
Tokyo 2020
Expectations were high from Biles for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Despite a shaky performance in the gymnastics preliminary events, Biles managed to bring the American women team to the team finals and herself to the individuals' finals. And that’s when pressure took its toll. After a bad jump in the vault, Biles left the stadium and soon announced she is quitting the team competition. Later, she also announced she would be quitting all individual finals.
Speculation soon spiraled about what happened to the champion, and Biles was quick to answer it was due to her MENTAL HEALTH compromising her general health. “For anyone saying I quit, I didn’t quit, my mind and body are simply not in sync as you can see here,” Biles wrote. “I don’t think you realize how dangerous this is on a hard/competition surface.”
Biles remained in Tokyo to cheer her teammates throughout the rest of the competition.
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QUITTING AS A STRENGTH, NOT A WEAKNESS
https://www.leehealth.org/health-and-wellness/healthy-news-blog/mental-health/simone-biles-and-pressure-talking-about-mental-health
The gymnast’s withdrawal came hot on the heels of another star athlete, tennis champion Naomi Osaka, who cited anxiety and mental health issues when she opted out of the French Open and Wimbledon earlier this year.
“I do think (athletes) help the mental health discussion. The thing I always tell my patients is that as a society, and, in the past, a lot of people saw mental health problems as a weakness,” Dr. Raab says. “I always tell patients that when they acknowledge that there is something that they need to work on, that’s a strength.”
Biles’ case and the twisties
... Experts and mental health advocates are quick to point out that PRESSURE is just another name for STRESS.
--- Behind the scenes, Biles recently revealed that her aunt died shortly before the Olympic competition. And Biles was also one of many young gymnasts sexually abused by USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar. In fact, Biles had said that one of the reasons she wanted to compete this year (after winning multiple golds at the previous Olympics) was to help shine a light on Nassar’s abuses and show that such horrors could be overcome.
“I think it’s so easy to judge somebody. And you have no idea what’s going on. We don’t know how much Nassar plays a role. Going back to competition, that could have been a trigger,” Dr. Raab says. “From a news perspective, it’s people’s job to commentate on things, but in reality there are probably a lot of layers to this story, and I think as a society we try to make judgments we don’t even know about.”
Also, Dr. Raab points out, if we’re pushing ourselves non-stop – in any profession – someday our body will just say no.
COVID-19 stress and burnout
Companies are seeing that employees will produce more if they are rested and it actually helps the long-term gain for the company as well,” Dr. Raab says.
n Biles’ case, the pressure she felt under the bright lights and the scrutiny of millions upon millions of strangers watching her led to something called “the twisties.”
This means that her mind-body connection, honed into muscle memory from years of intense practice, suddenly betrayed her, and she lost track of herself in the air – quite a problem when spinning and flipping at top speed. A gymnast dealing with “the twisties” opens themselves to serious injuries.
“Missing a foul shot is one thing, but missing a twirl is another – there is a high rate of injury,” Dr. Raab says about gymnasts. “You can break your neck, in her case, and that’s a whole other level of pressure. There’s so much where you have to know where your body is in relation to the ground. If you are not 100 percent, then it’s dangerous.
“But even outside of that, athletes at the top of their game, there is a lot of pressure there.”
Dr. Raab says we all have to take the time to check in with ourselves a little bit and maybe take a step back – in a way similar to Biles that is appropriate to our daily lives.
That could include finding things you enjoy and committing to them such as:
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Taking frequent breaks at work – especially if you are working from home. Just because you have a laptop on hand 24 hours a day doesn’t mean you should use it.
- Staying mindful and grateful
- Watching Netflix or other entertainment distractions
- Frequent walks or regular exercise
- Indulging in your favorite hobby or learning a new one
