Colorado researchers, athletes work to combat high suicide rates in sports

Sports offer a variety of health benefits, but some aspects can take a toll. Now, Colorado athletes and researchers are working to bring more awareness to the mental health struggles they often face.

It’s a struggle Civana Kuhlmann can relate to. Kuhlmann has played soccer for as long as she can remember.

“Yeah, I would say I became pretty obsessed with soccer at a young age,” she said.

That obsession has taken Kuhlmann around the world. First, playing for youth national teams in middle and high school.

Then, in 2017, Kuhlmann scored a spot on the women’s soccer team at Stanford University, earning two national championships before playing at the University of Colorado. By 2023, she was drafted by the Washington Spirit into the National Women’s Soccer League.

“I truly couldn’t fathom myself without the sport,” Kuhlmann told CBS Colorado. “I think back to myself as a kid and there was no life outside of sport or me beyond soccer.”

While Kuhlmann has found immense success in the sport, the 25-year-old says it is also what’s brought her to a halt.

“I think I was so completely burnt out and I had no idea,” she said.

Kuhlmann explained that, in hindsight, her mental health began to take a turn while she was in college. But she did all she could to power through to stay on top of her game.

“The anxiety and pressure that came with it,” she said, “I didn’t even know what all these things were in words and terms, much less how to conceptualize them and verbalize them as feelings or process them.”

A reality she says is true for many athletes of all ages.

“I think if we could simplify it into one word, a lot of it would come down to identity,” said Kuhlmann.

That single word is a big part of Dr. Matt Mishkind’s work studying mental health and athletics at the Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Depression Center at CU Anschutz in Aurora, where he serves as the center’s deputy director. 

“Identity is not just for athletes, but with athletes sometimes that starts at a very young age,” Dr. Mishkind said.

Mishkind explained there are many positive impacts on mental health with being involved in athletics, such as being active and part of a team. However, there are troubling risk factors, too.

“Increased rates of anxiety, increased rates of depression,” Mishkind told CBS Colorado. “It’s putting a lot of stress on families and kids to achieve, to stay with sports, to not switch sports. We’re seeing that as bringing about some concerns.

Among those concerns is an alarming trend of athlete suicides.

“Over the last decade, suicide was the second leading cause of death for NCAA athletes,” he said.

It’s a painful truth Kuhlmann knows all too well.

“I will never really be able to wrap my head around losing Katie to suicide,” Kuhlmann said tearfully.

Katie Meyer was Kuhlmann’s teammate at Stanford, but they were more like sisters.

“I see myself so much in her,” she said.

It’s hard to comprehend why Meyer is gone. Kuhlmann believes many athletes struggle with mental health but keep it inside.

“And when we put expectations, goals, and just greatness and success over well-being and just the holistic human, which an athlete is, it can be dangerous,” she said.

All the more reason why Kuhlmann is taking part in Dr. Mishkind’s ‘Coalition of Athletic Communities for Mental Health Conference’ on Feb. 25 and 26. The first annual two-day conference is designed to bring together current and former athletes and other leaders in the sports world to share their personal experiences with mental health and raise awareness.

“It’ll be Coach George Karl, Coach Gary Barnett, Jimmer Fredette, Civana Kuhlmann, and Dee Brown,” said Mishkind. “Sometimes just having the conversation leads to some relief, it leads to an understanding that ‘I’m not alone’, and there are resources out there. And, maybe as a community, we can really push change forward.”

A change Kuhlmann is eager to be part of by combining her deep passion for sports with her greater passion for helping others.

“You can access hope through one conversation,” she said.

The “Stronger as One” conference is open to the public, and all student athletes can register for free. It will take place at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, but there is also a virtual option for those who cannot attend in person. For more information and links to register, visit the “Stronger as One” event page online.