After reading about Paul Merson’s suicide attempt, I felt that it was a story all too familiar.

A Player retires, carries out self sabotaging behaviours, gets to the brink of death and then shares their story. The same story is repeated with another player. We have addiction and suicide attempts outside of football however, football has its own unique patterns with addiction, depression and suicide (spikes when injured and retired).

Merson wasn’t the first player and will not be the last, so what is the pattern? What does football do to the players? Lets break down the player into a person, then break the person down into organs, with the focus being on the brain, also known as the centre of the nervous system. What does football do to the brain of a professional footballer?

That’s dope!

Players love football, for many it gives them a euphoric feeling they cannot explain but what does this euphoric feeling do to their brain? It releases dopamine, otherwise known as the feel-good neurotransmitter. From nutmegging a player in training to scoring the winning goal in a final, your brain has dopamine parties! Amateur players and fans experience these feelings too but not to the level of a professional player, as the professional football environment is far more concentrated.

Adrenaline junkies

To understand dopamine a little better and to put this into context, drug addicts don’t seek the drug, they seek the feeling, and the feeling is the release of dopamine. Different things release a different amount of dopamine, for example eating that dessert you craved will be a low release, having sex releases a larger amount and taking a class A drug will be a high release. Footballer’s brains are literally on drugs, football is a strong powerful drug that keeps on giving! Getting a high after a good piece of skill, a training session, a match, a season, receiving a contract, a transfer & more. They are continuously chasing and being pushed to retrieve each high, once achieved, they are taught to put it aside and chase another.

“It’s only now I know. I have an illness. I have a mental illness. I’ve accepted that now. Before, I used to beat myself up all the time.”

- Paul Merson

Mental health in football is its own animal

Mental illnesses are broad, it’s about time we dig into specifics, especially within the world of football, as mental health within this intense environment is unique!

Players are currently fighting a losing battle against addiction, in pursuit of finding a filler for the feeling after training/during injury and recreating the feeling in retirement. The players are NOT predisposed to being an addict, hence there being a minority. However, Genetics, childhood, and social circle can affect the player’s outcome for better or worse.

Not all players that fall are addicts, some are depressed, others are living among you and in the media without a title, but they are unhappy and lost. I know many! When planning for other careers or Plan B, the reason why players struggle is because they cannot think of where they can get “that” high elsewhere. Those that retire experience a real thud of a come down, as they cold-turkey-it through life.

Containment

Paul Merson once spoke about Sky Sports News being like the football changing room and how he would of struggled without it. Players always speak about the changing room because it’s their safe space, the training pitch can bring great pressure however, in the changing room, it’s safe and you laugh a lot. It contains you. When players retire, they lose their containment. There are a lot of big losses that happen at the same time, with the main one being their identity.

How can we change this outcome?

We can wait for players to repeatedly fall victim to the lifestyle OR we can provide prehab, a combination of neuroscience & emotional literacy. Education delivered in an engaging football related way. Players want these types of programs.

I wish Paul Merson and others struggling, all the best!

#Soccology