Bryce Young Speaks Out on the Stigma That Comes With Mental Health Struggles as an Athlete

Bryce Young has been on a bumpy ride with the Carolina Panthers since being drafted, and it even took a toll on him last season. Unlike many others, the former number one overall pick has decided to speak openly about his mental health struggles. Prompting a conversation that not many fans, players, or coaches want to have around the league.

There’s always been a stigma about mental health struggles as an athlete. When Dak Prescott opened up about it in 2020, the response was somewhat deflected by the public. Negative attitudes and biases have seemingly discouraged some athletes of older generations from speaking out. Whether it be something external, like a family issue, or something internal, like their level of play.

It’s no secret that ever since being selected number one overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, Bryce Young has struggled to find his footing. In 28 career starts, he’s won just 6 games. And all of the losses have weighed heavily on him mentally. Young opened up about it while discussing the stigma surrounding the topic.

“There’s definitely been a big stigma around [discussing mental health in] athletics for a long time. For me, I like to deal and live in the truth. I’m super grateful to have my profession. I’m super passionate about it, but we’re all human,” he told GQ Sports.

“People, a lot of times, think that we don’t have the same struggles, we don’t deal with the same things. Our lives, at times, maybe can look different from others, but it’s all a set of circumstances. The makeup of who we are, what we go through from an emotional level, it’s all the same,” he added.

Young explained how he comes from a family that works as therapists and counselors. His father, Craig, is a mental health therapist and played an instrumental role in his upbringing. His mother, Julie, is a former special education teacher who offers Bryce her unwavering support. 

Young’s father once explained how important mental health was in their family. “It’s just something that we’ve always paid a lot of attention to,” Craig told CBS Sports. “And we always wanted to provide an environment for Bryce where he felt safe and he felt loved and he felt encouraged irrespective of his outcomes.” 

He added: “We provided a safe place for him to express his feelings or sometimes not to express his feelings… that whatever he’s feeling was okay and that we were there to help him problem solve and that through that problem-solving journey he was always loved and we were there for him.”

The style of upbringing seems to be paying off. Young is now on a mission to make mental health a more suitable topic to talk about in NFL culture. Even though most fans don’t want to mention it, the Carolina QB wants to let every kid know that it’s okay to ask for help.

Look, the studies and statistics don’t lie. Between 5% – 35% of elite athletes have some form of mental health disorder. And that’s just the elite ones. Almost everyone goes through the mental obstacle of coming to terms with the idea that they aren’t as good as the elite athletes. Which is an unquantifiable number. 

Young’s generation is simply not as afraid to let people know when they aren’t doing okay mentally. And while the stigma has always dissuaded such athletes from speaking out about it, it’s great that Bryce is trying to change that notion. Behind the education from his parents, his status, and his great smile, he could indeed make a difference.