Your Mental Health “Disorder” Can Make You a Better Athlete
How to channel the hidden strengths of your mental health journey
I’ve been reflecting deeply on a core theme for The Balanced Athlete community, and today I’m excited to share an idea that I hope becomes a true breakthrough for you—both in your sport and on your mental health journey.
Here at The Balanced Athlete Substack, we’ve been exploring the dynamic between endurance sports and mental health—a relationship I've personally navigated for most of my adult life. Pursuing a graduate degree in applied sports psychology, combined with my clinical experience as a physician, has helped crystallize truths I've felt intuitively for decades as someone who lives with bipolar disorder.
In my first post, We Are The Balanced Athlete, I introduced the core TBA mission: Your sport can help heal your mind, and your mental health journey can transform your sport. I made a strong (though not entirely novel) case that athletes can use tactics and strategies from sports psychology to improve mental health. Today, however, I’m focusing squarely on the second half of that mission: leveraging your mental health experiences to elevate athletic performance. This, I realize, is a perspective that’s a bit less common—and I’m ready to step boldly into that conversation.
Over the past few years, I've grown fascinated by a powerful yet underappreciated idea: we can actively channel the insights, experiences, and even the energy from our mental health journey directly into better athletic performance.
This flips the traditional narrative on its head. Often, mental performance techniques from sports psychology—like positive self-talk, mindfulness, or visualization—are promoted to improve everyday mental health. And I’m a huge advocate of using the tools of sports psychology to help treat our mental conditions. But what if we reversed the order? What if the energy derived from our mental health challenges could fuel our athletic performance?
This is the essence of being a Balanced Athlete. It’s not just about endurance or grit—it’s about transforming the raw, sometimes dark energy of our struggles into a powerful athletic drive.
The Energy of Depression: Grit in Darkness
When I first introduce this idea, most people often react with skepticism: "Wait, Dr. Jud, are you seriously saying I can take the energy from depression and use it to become a better athlete?" My answer is an unequivocal yes.
Depression is exhausting, isolating, and deeply challenging. I dread the cognitive slowing, hopelessness, and fatigue that comes with it. Yet, hidden within these struggles is profound learning about resilience. Think about the days you woke up without motivation, yet still got up, went to work, took care of your kids, or simply survived another day.
Those small moments speak volumes about your grit and strength. And you learn from every one of these moments, record them as experience, and store them as a form of energy that can be used when the time is right.
The energy you harness from depression is heavy, exhausting, yet uniquely powerful. It contains the deep desire to overcome, to escape that state.
Sport offers similar moments. The marathon's final miles, a brutal cycling climb, or the last swim lap—when your body screams and your mind begs to quit. Conventional sports psychology emphasizes positive self-talk, which certainly helps. But you can also tap directly into the gritty resilience forged by your hardest mental battles.
Instead of suppressing these feelings, lean into them:
"I've endured worse than this. I can get through this run."
"I've faced my own mind and survived. This climb is nothing compared to that."
"I'm carrying the weight of my struggles—and that makes me stronger."
This isn't glorifying pain. It's recognizing that the resilience built through depression can become a powerful ally in sport.
Don’t reject your depression. Don’t bury it or believe you have to overcome it. Use your depression.
The Energy of Elevated Moods: Harnessing Hypomania
On the other end of the spectrum lies a different, electric energy. As someone with bipolar, I frequently experience hypomania—periods of elevated mood, high energy, and uncontainable drive.
In The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between Craziness and Success in America (IMO required reading for any Balanced Athlete with bipolar or big mood swings), psychologist John Gartner makes the case that hypomania fuels creativity, risk-taking, and significant achievement. I believe a similar argument can be made for athletic success.
Hypomania, and frankly any time you’re in a state of elevated mood, can feel like a superpower: boundless physical energy, effortless creativity, and soaring confidence. If properly channeled, it can propel athletic performance significantly.
Shortly after launching The Balanced Athlete here on Substack a close friend of mine texted me this: “I’ve realized in recent years that I need to stop fighting my nature…so now I follow the dopamine, use it while it lasts, and I’m grateful for it.” My friend doesn’t have bipolar as a clinical diagnosis, but she gets it completely when it comes to harnessing energy.
Don’t reject high-energy states, instead:
Push past previous boundaries with calculated risks.
Set clear limits to avoid overtraining.
Use bursts of energy strategically in sprints or high-intensity intervals.
Incorporate mindfulness to stay grounded and avoid burnout.
Unchecked, hypomania can lead to impulsive decisions and overexertion. I’ve experienced this firsthand, like the “midnight centuries” I rode so frequently during my residency at Hopkins which I described in Embracing The Bipolar Advantage. Intentionality is essential to harness this energy effectively.
The Balanced Athlete: A New Perspective
Here’s my core message: Your mental health challenges—whether depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma, or elevated moods—aren't simply obstacles. They're sources of unique energy and wisdom that can enhance your athletic performance profoundly.
This mindset shift means discarding the negative label "disorder" and adopting a framework of positivity and reflection. Your "disorder" can be your athletic advantage.
Next time you’re struggling, remind yourself: the endurance built in those tough moments is the same endurance you'll tap into during competition. When you feel energized, harness it thoughtfully and intentionally.
This perspective doesn’t minimize the importance of balance, care, and self-awareness. But it opens the door to embracing your mental health journey as integral to your athletic identity, which is both empowering and transformative.
Shifting my thinking this way has been a game-changer for my own identity, and I’d love for you to try it out.
Balanced Boosts (Key Takeaways) — Applying Mental Health Energy in Sport
Here’s how to begin:
Reflect on Your Experiences
Journal or meditate on moments you've overcome mental health challenges. Highlight your grit, determination, or creativity.
Craft Personal Mantras
"I've conquered my mind; I can conquer this race."
"Darkness taught me strength."
Embrace Both Energies
Leverage depressive energy for endurance and persistence.
Use elevated or hypomanic energy strategically for bursts of training and creativity.
Seek Support and Self-Awareness
Work with a coach, therapist, physician, or mentor who understands mental health and sport interplay.
A Journey Worth Sharing
At The Balanced Athlete, I'm diving deep into this theme because it's personal, powerful, and necessary. Too often, mental illness is seen as something to "fix." But it’s also a source of energy, learning, and strength that can elevate us—as athletes and humans.
While it may sound counterintuitive—or even controversial—I genuinely believe that your mental health condition, and the profound lessons you’ve learned from navigating it, can make you not just a stronger athlete, but a more insightful, resilient, and empathetic person. Because of this I don’t spend time wishing I didn’t have bipolar disorder; I spend time looking for ways I can let it shine—to use it as a source of strength, creativity and connection in my life and athletic pursuits.
This post wraps up the first three foundational posts of The Balanced Athlete, clearly articulating my core mission: your sport can help heal your mind, and your mental health journey can transform your athletic performance. This mission has become central to my own life, improving it profoundly—not perfect, but significantly better—and I genuinely believe it holds the same potential for you. I'm thrilled to keep exploring together how embracing our mental health experiences can positively reshape our athletic performance, mindset, and overall lives.
On a personal note, I'm feeling a bit of that "gulp" factor, as I'm only three days away from running the Canyons 100K trail race in Auburn, CA alongside my brother-in-law. Honestly, I'm feeling the nerves and the intimidation. I'd truly appreciate your support out there—you’re an essential part of my team. With that in mind, my next post will delve into the importance of your "Crew," highlighting how vital it is to have supportive people by your side when navigating life and sport with mental illness.
Amidst the imbalance, let’s strive toward balance,
Jud
