Mental Health Matters

I’m sure many of the people reading this right now have either struggled with mental illness or wonder what a mental illness looks like. Chances are, if you turn to your nearest debater, there’s your answer. I think it’s important to stop pretending this issue doesn’t exist, but rather, openly embrace it. 

To everyone who struggles with mental illness, I know your pain; this is for you. My name is Euan Thomasson, and as of writing this, I am still a competitor. I am writing this because I am seeing the growth of mental illness in debate in me — in myself, other people on the circuit, and even coaches. 

What I’ve seen, especially locally, is burnout. Whether it is due to an excessive workload, stress from those who are around a debater, or other life circumstances — debaters put FAR too much of a burden on themselves. As a result, we’re seeing a massive decline in mental health stemming from the apparent culture of like-minded suffering. Moreover, the biggest problem in this cliquey, hyper-competitive culture is that people, by necessity, need to be excluded. In my home domain of congressional debate, this exclusion leads to insecurity over skill level which drives disrespectful attitudes among peers and an increase in obsession over results. As an extracurricular based around arguing, we are seeing that this type of culture has led to a constant feeling of judgment, which is causing people to feel unsafe in the debate space, and a subsequent sense of insecurity and self doubt. My own experience was that I became so obsessed with the first thing I ever felt good at that a simple Tabroom number controlled my entire mental stability. 

Many competitors neglect themselves to the point where they will skip meals, showers, sleep, and socialization, which is becoming normalized because, “I need to prep” and, “I want to final” shift from statements or goals and turn into mindsets with an attempt to prove yourself as "good enough". The mental health crisis we face in debate means that people burn out faster, lose motivation quicker, and can ultimately find themselves in states such as depression or anxiety. I mean, it’s so bad that members from this very organization that posted this stated that the impact debate had on their mental health was “bad”, “debatable”, led them to self-destructive thought, or felt they felt so affected that they only wished to DM me (out of many people I asked, most chose this). Only one of many people I asked felt as though their mental health improved as a result of this culture.

There are primarily two things that need to be done before we can even begin to solve this issue. Firstly, we need to be better. It’s imperative that as a culture we stop worshiping competitors we think are better than us, and in a debate mindset we, as a collective, need to start seeing each other as competition instead of deities. Secondly, we also need to start treating each other with dignity and identifying mental health decline symptoms. The way we can do both of these things is by talking to anyone and everyone we want to talk to, instead of trying to embrace a nonchalant culture and missing out on connection. Through networking we can make friends with the people who need help. And even if we embrace the nonchalant culture, it’s important to drop the act around people you see the signs of decline in. 

I think it’s important, that before embracing solvency, to quantify just how bad the issue is. The day of my second prelims for TFA, I had had a mental breakdown multiple times that morning over my self worth, how capable I felt, and trying to balance an extremely stressful personal life with a major tournament. After dropping semi-finals that weekend, I went to get lunch and promptly passed out for five hours. If I had broken finals, I would have had a panic attack in-round over my crippling fear of failure. And as someone who suffers from relatively minimal mental health issues, the debaters, unlike me, suffer in silence. 

So now for the biggest solution. As a community, it’s important to cease worship culture around major debate names. Twofold, if it strokes their ego, they don’t deserve the praise of legends, as they’re nerdy teenagers, not someone like Lebron James. I can guarantee that a large amount of skilled debaters don’t do it for the excessive praise. They’re highschool kids like you and me who want to participate in a fun arts humanities activity for college applications or connections that help us beat underlying mental issues beginning in childhood. 

If we want to reduce burnout, reduce the prevalence of mental illnesses within the debate space, and make debate a safer and better place overall, we need to stop idolizing each other. It’s important to do that as well as preaching help to each other; or at the very least extending a helping hand every once and a while. Do what you wish others had done for you and be better to each other.