Mental Health In Esports: Worse Than We Thought?

Research on consequences of gaming—especially esports participation—has become an important and rich part of the scientific community. Numerous studies show negative mental health consequences—calling for the need to explore the whys, and preventive measures. However, first, research needs to establish the prevalence of it. Today, we look at a study investigating what percentage of professional players suffer from mental health issues and which types.

"... mental ill health refers to a negative state of well-being, and severe mental ill health refers to diagnosable disorders, such as depression or panic disorder." [1]

Mental health is a major public health concern, as—according to the World Health Organization—nearly one billion people worldwide have a mental disorder, mostly anxiety (26.9%) and depression (28%). Gamers, although they often escape into virtual worlds, are not excluded. Recent studies show that professional gamers (esports athletes) are susceptible to mental health disorders as well as lower well-being. As we have covered in previous episodes, internal and external stressors, such as high training volumes, competitive stress, injury, social media, and performance expectations, likely contributing to that.

Although, there is one study who found that FIFA video game players had higher levels of distress (22.2%), anxiety (38.0%), and depression (37.1%) symptoms, compared to professional football players, little is known about the prevalence of esports athletes' mental ill health.

"Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine the prevalence of mental ill health and mental wellbeing in professional Counter-Strike athletes." [1]

😰 Pro players face mental health challenges on par with traditional athletes — or worse

First, the researchers asked professional CS players about potential support they received from their current or previous team(s). 68.6% answered that there was no support offered vs. 13.0% reported otherwise.

Second, 15.69% reported moderate, and 9.80% severe depression symptoms. 82.35% indicated symptoms of anxiety or depression, and 54.90% of the participants reported psychological distress. To round off these stats, the questionnaire came back with 72.55% of the professional players having a subjective low bell-being.

Although, the researchers didn't dive deeper into what may causes these symptoms, it's a good starting point for future research to examine the whys and hows. They noted, that "mental ill health can stem from various sources such as early childhood trauma, negative experiences, and genetic predispositions, among others" [1].

"These factors may be unrelated to an individual’s chosen career, hobby, or current lifestyle." [1]

With the disclaimer "may be" in mind, they compared their findings to those of the average Joe on the street. What (un-)surprising was that the mental ill symptoms in CS pros were substantially higher. For instance, "only" 7.6% of people in the US reported moderately, severe, and severe depression symptoms.

Another study found the prevalence of mental ill health to be estimated to 26.9% anxiety, 28.0% depression, and 50.0% distress. This is closer to what we saw in CS pros. What's interesting is that 33.6% anxiety/depression, and 19.6% distress was reported by traditional elite sports athletes. This indicates that those in a hyper-competitive field, such as sports, have higher negative ill mental health symptoms.

🥡 The Takeaways

Professional CS players are worse off when it comes to well-being and mental health, similar to traditional professional sports athletes. Researchers in the gaming and esports space have started taking closer looks at how to improve the situation for players. Let's see what they come up with...

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Birch et al., 2024