I grew up in the house on the corner of Eighth Street and Lenox Avenue in East Meadow. It’s a decent sized house with a nice front yard and a pool in the back. When you walked in the house you might smell Italian food being cooked, hear the television, or my sister and I playing. Our kitchen was basic with white cabinets and a giant mirror up against the wall. My mom would also hang our art work on the wall. The den use to be the cozy hangout spot. It consisted of soft, comfy couches and a warm carpet beneath your feet. The basement was another fun spot. My sister and I had our toys all over the place and my dad had a small workout section, that he hardly ever used. I loved the house I grew up in and all the memories my family and I shared in the house. We were just an average family, living in a nice typical house, who did normal family things.

One of the things my family has always loved to do together is relax at night after a long day and binge watch tv. We watched shows like America’s Got Talent, Master Chef Junior, and Survivor. But our favorite show to watch together to this day, is American Ninja Warrior. The show had inspired my little sister and dad to want to be like the athletes and play on obstacles like the show had. My dad did his research about ninja obstacle places, and there are none on Long Island. Therefore, he thought of the idea that it would be smart to build obstacles at our house. Most people posting videos on YouTube built obstacles in their backyard, but even though we live in a nice neighborhood with a decent backyard, there just wasn’t enough room to build anything. So that’s when my house started to have major changes. It would still be the comfortable, nice welcoming house that it was, but now there would be obstacles.

My basement is a decent size, which was good for my dad to start building things. There used to be a bar area, but my dad and grandpa had ripped it out to make more space. The basement carpet remained the same throughout the process. My dad started ripping out some of the ceiling so it would be easier to build obstacles. My childhood basement was beginning to quickly change, however my dad and sister were super excited to have obstacles in the house. The first addition of obstacles to my house honestly wasn’t that much. There was a swinging wooden board from the ceiling, a straight line of rock climbing grips, and something similar to monkey bars. We also added a ton of blue mats to the ground incase someone was to fall. It was surprisingly really fun to play around on at first, but as time went on my family stopped using the obstacles. Therefore, my dad decided it was a good idea to build even more stuff in my basement.

As time went on, my basement wasn’t the same cozy hangout spot like it use to be. Having the obstacles definitely managed to make me more active, and anytime I had friends over it was fun to let them check it out. Throughout the years my dad had extended the ninja obstacles not only around the basement but around the whole house and outside. If you walk into my garage you’ll see a washer and a dryer, look to your left and there’s a rock climbing wall. It’s about 13 feet high, has colorful grips, and a huge landing pad. When you enter my den, there are thin pieces of wood up against the wall and you need to have good finger grip strength to be able to climb up and down. In the backyard there’s a slackline set up, which you walk across to help improve your balance.

My dad and sister couldn’t be more ecstatic about having all the obstacles at our house. Everyday when my sister would come home from school, and my dad came home from work, the two of them were like children at a playground. My mom and I on the other hand, were not as into it. At first, I thought it was a cool idea, but I think my dad did take the idea a bit too far. Although I do enjoy playing around on the obstacles once in a while and getting a good workout in. My mom never stopped my dad from building anything, even though this probably wasn’t her favorite idea, she knew it made the rest of the family happy. And eventually, she started to practice some of the obstacles daily. It was such a cool experience to be able to spend time with my family in our basement blasting music and playing around on obstacles. Most families definitely won’t be able to experience that.

My sister had trained on the obstacles so much that my dad decided to enter her into a ninja obstacle competition. She ended up coming in the top three for the state having us travel to Connecticut to compete with other people from around the country. Little did we know, this was the start of a new hobby. At these competitions there are so many ninjas that are on the actual show. From my sister, and even my dad, doing the ninja competitions, my family has met a tremendous amount of ninjas from the show. Each and every person is always so friendly and willing to take pictures and have a conversation. To my family and I, these people are like superstars since we watch them every week on our television at home. And sometimes it’s easy to forget that they are just normal people who are living their life, and that they could be going through something difficult in their live just like anyone else. Seeing people on TV who are always happy and performing the obstacles, the viewers and fans tend to forget that they’re just normal people like us.

Two years ago, the show American Ninja Warrior lowered the age to be able to try and get onto the show. Instead of having to be twenty-one, you now have to be at least nineteen. Once the show lowered the age, there were so many young athletes attempting the show. One in particular, named Mathis Owhadi, had really excelled his first year on the course. He was only nineteen years old competing against grown men, and was doing extremely well, having done better than most of the people older than him. Since this was the first year that the show had lowered the age, and this teen was having such an impressive season, all the commercials and ads started mentioning him. He instantly starting blowing up of popularity. Even though the shows commercials were hyping him up so much, the pressure never got to him and he always performed outstanding on the show. Having become so popular, he had tons of fans who looked up to him. The viewers always see the smile on his face and watch him always be able to beat the course. No one ever suspects that the ninjas get super nervous or have so much anxiety leading up to their performances because they’re always so smiley and we don’t think of them to be any less than perfect.

This past season, Mathis Owhadi announced something important about his mental health to the show. He said that after last year’s season, he started getting panic attacks. Due to having so much pressure to succeed on the show and do well in college, so much anxiety was building up inside him. He kept having negative thoughts and said it was like a “snowball effect.” He also shared that for about a month, he just stayed in his bed majority of the time, so he thought he wasn’t going to compete this past season. He ended up reaching out to a lot of different people until he got the help he needed, and also joined a support group. Owhadi said he stayed hopeful and believed he would get out of it. Thankfully, he did end up competing again and his mental health help improved. If he didn’t share that story, no one would have known what was going on in his life. It’s hard for people to believe that famous athletes struggle with mental illnesses since you only see a part of their lives on the TV screen.

Not only are athletes on the show American Ninja Warrior suffering from a mental illness, but many professional athletes are as well. What many people don’t know is that one in four athletes suffer from a mental illness from all the stress. While some athletes enjoy all the fame, money, and fans, others could be making millions and find it to not even be worth it. Having to be a role model for millions of people and practice hours and hours a week is too much for some athletes to handle. Being a professional athlete takes a huge toll on physical and mental health, which also could lead to making poor life decisions and drug abuse.

Athletes today are put under extreme amounts of pressure since millions of people are not only watching every game, but also looking up to some of the players as role models. Many children, and even adults, look up to some of their favorite athletes which could be very nerve racking to some athletes who do not like being under so much pressure. The media plays such a huge influence in the lives of athletes. With the media broadcasting athlete’s lives they are forced to be role models for millions of people all over the world. Which could be setting high standards for the players. In an article written by Lauren Hardy, she says, “…along with a fierce sense of competition comes the development of high standards. Whether those high standards are set by coaches, teammates, parents, fans, oneself, or a combination of all, they will undoubtedly cause some athletes to become overly critical of themselves” (Hardy). Athletes start to get very cautious of every minor mistake they make because their coaches, teammates, and fans our counting on them. Being under so much pressure could cause players to have a fear of failing, and letting themselves and others down. When the athletes become overwhelmed by these repeating negative thoughts, they may start to question their ability to perform. When athletes are at the point when they feel like they are disappointing and letting their fans down, many start abusing substances and alcohol.

According to a study in the journal Sports Medicine, fifty-seven percent of athletes admitted to using drugs. Due to being under so much pressure, athletes tend to make poor decisions to try and get the feeling of failure to go away. While some athletes are doing this to take away the feeling of pain and disappointment, what some might not know is that “alcohol consumption can reduce hand– eye coordination, muscle strength, muscle memory, and running and cycling times and lead to dehydration, insomnia, and myopathies” (Morse 9). So although they think they might be fixing their problems, it’s actually lowering their athleticism. Some athletes might also start to get addicted from drugs because they used it as pain killers. Morphine, methadone, vicodin, and percocet are all examples of drugs that athletes may use to help them perform during games while being injured. However, the narcotics are highly addictive. For example, “They work to depress the nervous system and can result in feelings of euphoria and well-being. So not only are these substances helping to rid a person of his or her pain, but they may also be making him or her feel “high.” These feelings of euphoria and well-being can cause an increase in one’s self-esteem, resulting in the athlete no longer feeling the pressures that he or she may have previously been experiencing” (Hardy). The longer that competitors take these painkillers, the more rapidly their resilience develops. Leaving them to require even more drugs then they started out with to continue the euphoric emotions and more prominent feeling of self-esteem.

Whether its an athlete competing on a show like American Ninja Warrior, or a professional athlete, the fans and sometimes coaches are oblivious to the fact that they could be going through something serious or be dealing with a mental illness. Drugs and alcohol may be solving a problem for an athlete right at that moment, but definitely not in the long run. It’s so important for people to realize that just because someone smiles and looks perfect on camera, doesn’t mean everythings okay on the inside.

 

Works Cited

Hardy, Lauren N. “Pressure on Athletes, Competitiveness, and Addiction.” Addiction Hope, https://www.addictionhope.com/prescription-drugs/pressure-on-athletes-competitiveness- and-addiction/.

Morse, Eric D. “Substance Use in Athletes” Clinical Sports Psychiatry : An International Perspective, edited by David A. Baron, et al., John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013, pp 3-12 ProQuest Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/newpaltz-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1165231. Accessed 26 Sep. 2019