disordered athletes

Disordered AthletesWHICH ONE IS IT?

Deviance in Athletic Sport Ethic

Sharon Chirban, Ph.D.Clinical Psychologist/Sport Psychology Consultant

Children’s Hospital Boston

Division of Sports Medicine

Sport Ethic

is a set of norms that many athletes in power and performance sports have accepted as the dominant criteria for defining what it means to be an athlete and to successfully claim an identity as an athlete.

Elements of Sport Ethic

Athlete must make sacrifices for the “game” or “the sport.”

This norm stresses that athletes must love “the game” above all else and prove it by giving the game priority over other interests.

Elements of Sport Ethic

An athlete strives for distinction. “citius, altius, fortius” (swifter, higher and stronger) captures the meaning of this norm.

Being an athlete means constantly seeking to improve and to achieve perfection.

Perfectionism

Not “good enough”

When does the endless pursuit of “more” backfire?

Out of balance

An athlete accepts risks and plays through pain. According to this norm, an athlete does not give in to pressure, pain or fear.

An athlete accepts no limits in the pursuit of possibilities. This norm stresses the “dream” and the obligation to pursue it without question.

These four norms of the sport ethic are deeply rooted in the culture of today’s power and performance sports.

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By themselves, these norms call for actions and orientations valued by people in society as a whole: making commitments and sacrifices, striving for improvement, pushing yourself even when things are difficult or painful, and pursuing dreams.

LOST TO ANOREXIA



For a runner, Alex DeVinny wasn’t all that skinny on the day that she won a state track title in 2003. At 17, she was 5-foot-8 and weighed 125 pounds. Last March, Ms. DeVinny died from cardiac arrest related to her starvation. She was 20 and weighed roughly 70 pounds.

When Varsity Fit Masks Anorexia



43 % of the 91 college coaches for women’s athletics surveyed could name the elements of the Female Athlete Triad.

The survey also found that 24 % mistakenly thought that nonexistent or irregular periods were natural consequences of vigorous exercise rather than the telltale signs of nutritional deficiency.

In 2003, the NCAA surveyed over 2800 coaches about disordered eating, and found that only 19% of men and 26% of women were aware of the seriousness of amenorrhea, defined as menstrual dysfunction for three or more months.

"Kerri listen to me. “You can do it,"

said USA coach Bela Karolyi as Kerri Strug readied for her second and final vault during the team competition at the 1996 Atlanta Games.



Heading into their final event, the vault, the U.S. had a lead over Russia and it looked liked the U.S. had its first gold in the team combined exercises all sewn up. That is until teammate Dominique Moceanu fell down on both her vaults and Strug's first attempt also ended in a fall. Serious doubt crept into the thoughts of 32,000 spectators and Karolyi let her know that she needed to land her second and final vault in order to seal it. The only problem, aside from the avalanche of pressure on the 18-year-old, was that Strug had felt a pop in her ankle on her first vault and could barely walk, let alone sprint down the runway and fling herself up and over the horse to land with great purpose onto only one good leg.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsQcwHc1Jfw

Somehow Strug gritted her teeth, thinking that the team's gold medals all depended on this final vault (in actuality they didn't, but no one knew that at the time), and got the job done with a solid landing before collapsing in pain onto her hands and knees. QuickTime™ and a

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The bear-like Karolyi scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the award ceremony to collect her gold medal and the rousing ovation from the packed house.

Strug, with two torn ligaments in her ankle from her courageous effort, was left unable to compete in any individual events.

Deviance and the Sport Ethic

Deviance occurs when the norms of the sport ethic are accepted uncritically, without question and qualification, and then followed without limits, without setting or acknowledging boundaries.

Deviant Overconformity

Female Athlete Triad Overtraining Overuse injuries Burnout/Overtraining Illicit Substance Abuse/ Performance

Enhancement Drugs

Why Overconform?

Most athletes don’t see overconformity as deviance, they see it as reaffirming their identities as athletes and their membership in select sport groups.

Who Over-conforms?

Low self-esteem High need for acceptanceAge of the athleteBreadth of the athletic identity

Why Overconform?

Athletes who see achievement in sports as their only way to get ahead, make themselves a name, and become important in the world.

Deviant over-conformity is subversive, because it is widely ignored.

Symptoms of Exercise Dependence

withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety and depressions when they are unable to work out

limit social relationships to exerciseprofessional or school begins to suffercontinue to exercise despite injuries

Obligatory or Excessive Exercisers

Pathogenic exercise or exercise addiction have been used to describe individuals who are consumed by the need for physical activity to the exclusion of everything else and to the point of damage and danger to their lives.

Signs and Symptoms of Activity Disorder

Obsessive concerns about being fat, body dissatisfaction, binge eating

Person maintains a high level of activity and is uncomfortable with states of rest or relaxation


there is an intense, driven quality to the activity that becomes self-perpetuating and resistant to change, compelling the person to continue while feeling the lack of ability to control or stop the behavior

only the overuse of the body can produce the physiological effects of deprivation (secondary to exposure to the elements, extreme exertion, and rigid dietary restriction) that are an important component perpetuating the disorder


Activity disordered persons will use rationalization and other defense mechanisms to protect their involvement in the activity.


Although there is no particular personality profile or disorder, the activity disordered person’s achievement orientation, independence, self-control, perfectionism, persistence and well-developed mental strategies can foster significant academic and vocational accomplishments in such a way that they appear as healthy, high-functioning individuals.

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