From #endthestigma to #realman: Stigma-Challenging Social Media Responses to NBA Players’ Mental Health Disclosures

“We’re Human Too”: Media Coverage of Simone Biles's Mental Health Disclosure during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

“…More tellingly, the next most-frequent foci of individual implications and team implications largely aligned with American media's tendency to frame the Olympics as an opportunity for American dominance (Billings et al, 2013; Kim & Billings, 2017), or, in this case, how that dominance might be affected due to the loss of the team's top star. For the next most popular theme, the heroic framing of Biles, this finding matches other recent literature finding favorable media coverage of athlete mental health disclosures (Parrott et al, 2020, 2021), potentially showing that media might be changing its tone toward mental health issues. However, more research on this positive media frame of mental health disclosure is needed to substantiate positive coverage as a clear pattern.…”

“…For Love and DeRozan, media coverage of their mental health battles was positive, a shift from negative frames of weakness and psychosis that media have frequently assigned to athletes with mental health struggles (Parrott et al, 2021). Since Love's and DeRozan's announcements, other media studies analyzing similar mental health issues like athletic body image issues or other physical manifestations of mental anguish (Huang et al, 2021; Walton et al, 2021), eating disorders among athletes (Buckley et al, 2021), and social media outspokenness about athlete depression (Parrott et al, 2020) have emerged.…”

“…Since many professional athletes have large followings on social media, the disclosure of professional athletes’ mental health issues on public platforms can invite others to identify with their struggles, and, in some cases, even motivate fans to seek professional mental health services for themselves or their friends (Calhoun & Gold, 2020; Castaldelli-Maia et al, 2019). Indeed, in response to Love and DeRozan's announcements, fans shared their personal mental health experiences on social media, and the overall social media response to Love and DeRozan was positive (Parrott et al, 2020). While everyday people seem to be embracing athletes’ announcements of mental health concerns more than they had in the past, Parrott et al (2020) underscore that this recent trend “challenges decades of stigmatizing norms in American society, including negative stereotypes traditionally communicated by news and entertainment media” (p. 156).…”

“…Indeed, in response to Love and DeRozan's announcements, fans shared their personal mental health experiences on social media, and the overall social media response to Love and DeRozan was positive (Parrott et al, 2020). While everyday people seem to be embracing athletes’ announcements of mental health concerns more than they had in the past, Parrott et al (2020) underscore that this recent trend “challenges decades of stigmatizing norms in American society, including negative stereotypes traditionally communicated by news and entertainment media” (p. 156). Due to the increasing prevalence of mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021), new work on mental health and athletes, such as the present study, is needed to extend these findings to the current global mental health situation.…”

The growing field of digital psychiatry: current evidence and the future of apps, social media, chatbots, and virtual reality

“…Disin formation 74 and stigma on social media are forces that cannot be ignored. Stigma on social media is common 75 , although efforts are also underway to challenge and reverse this trend 76 . Using social media for mental health work also remains a catalyst for ethical tensions, and a recent review offers a practical taxonomy of these tensions as well as guidance for navigating through these ongoing challenges 77 .…”