BCCI must provide psychological support to Rishabh Pant: Abhinav Bindra

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Psychologs Magazine
January 5th 2023

Rishabh Pant, Indian international cricketer was involved in an atrocious car accident on 30th December 2022 at Delhi Dehradun highway. The treatment for the player will take place in Mumbai at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital and Medical Research Institute.

Abhinav Bindra, an Indian Olympic gold medalist tweeted “Wonderful that the board is looking after Rishabh’s recovery. Must also provide psychological support as part of the healing and recovery process!”

Psychological assistance becomes imperative during such periods. A major chunk of healing also comprises willpower, support, faith, thought process, and mindset of the person. These factors have the capacity to catalyze the process of healing along with medical treatment. A person’s dominant mood state, feelings, thoughts, and emotions need to be addressed with utmost care and attention. For recovery to be more efficient, it becomes crucial to work on mental health.

Mental well-being has been shrugged off in sports. However, with increasing awareness, significance is being given to sports psychology. There is still a lot of scope to cultivate psychological healing in the sports field. While going through any injury, addressing the emotions, thoughts, and understanding what they are going through is a requisite to aid the entire healing process. Validating their emotions, being empathetic, listening, and fostering hope and motivation is essential for psychological well-being.

Stress, performance anxiety, low mood states, failures, nervousness, and self-esteem issues are few common difficulties that sportspersons go through. Mental well-being needs to be equally emphasized to deal effectively with overwhelming emotions that are concomitant with sports lifestyle.

Psychotherapy opens the room to discuss the deepest fears and concerns. It enables an individual to consider alternative perspectives, alter automatic negative thought patterns, educate about coping with stressors, and boost self-esteem.

Research has shown that providing a supportive environment during periods of injury increases the probability of return to play (RTP) by bringing down the negative affective responses and improving rehabilitation adherence. Further, psychological and socio-cultural factors determine injury risk, and response and recovery from injuries. To ensure career longevity and performance excellence, emphasis has been laid on continued efforts to protect the physical and mental well-being of athletes.