Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
All the little pointers: A poetic representation of one female elite athlete’s experience of living with and seeking treatment for an eating disorder
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Department of Physiology, Nutrition and Biomechanics.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2952-0347
Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, Department of Physiology, Nutrition and Biomechanics. University of Ottawa, Canada .ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9921-6586
Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, England.
2024 (English)In: International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, ISSN 1612-197X, E-ISSN 1557-251XArticle in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Eating disorders are highly prevalent in elite athletes but the lived experience of these has not been investigated extensively. In this article, we draw on life story data generated from four hours of interviews with a young (20 years plus), Swedish, elite, female athlete in an individual sport, named Lisa (a pseudonym) to explore her experiences of living with, seeking treatment, and attempting to recover from a diagnosed eating disorder. This exploration is accomplished by the use of poetic representations. Having made the methodological case for their use we then present the poems for consideration by the reader. The three poems are entitled All the little pointers, The voice inside my head, and Turning it around. Following this, we offer some reflections on how each poem might act as a pedagogical resource to assist those involved with elite athletes to better understand the nature of eating disorders, how the sporting environment can play a role in initiating and sustaining them, and how athletes might be supported and guided on the road to recovery.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2024.
Keywords [en]
Life story, psychiatric disorder, poetic representation, pedagogical resource, qualitative research
National Category
Sport and Fitness Sciences Applied Psychology
Research subject
Social Sciences/Humanities
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-7459DOI: 10.1080/1612197X.2024.2370448ISI: 001262780800001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85197563554OAI: oai:DiVA.org:gih-7459DiVA, id: diva2:1723839
Note

At the time of Cecilia Åkesdotter's dissertation this article was a manuscript under review.

Available from: 2023-01-04 Created: 2023-01-04 Last updated: 2024-08-23Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Psychiatric disorders in Swedish elite athletes: Prevalence, comorbidity and life stories
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Psychiatric disorders in Swedish elite athletes: Prevalence, comorbidity and life stories
2023 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The aim of this thesis is to explore psychiatric disorders in Swedish elite athletes.

The first study investigates a) the prevalence of symptoms of psychiatric disorders, b) the prevalence of mental health problems, defined by psychological suffering and impairment>2 weeks, c) the usefulness of sport-specific instruments in indicating clinical levels of psychiatric symptoms, and d) the life history of psychiatric disorders.

The second study describes psychiatric disorders and comorbidities in a clinical cohort of treatment-seeking elite athletes and high-performance coaches at two publicly funded outpatient psychiatric clinics in Stockholm and Malmö, Sweden.

The third study uses a narrative approach to understand the reasons why elite athletes with established psychiatric disorders choose to seek support and treatment outside – rather than within – their own sport environment.

The fourth study presents a poetic representation of one female elite athlete’s experiences of living with, and seeking treatment for, an eating disorder.

In sum, 19.5% of Swedish elite athletes had symptoms of anxiety and/or depression, and 8.1% had previously received a psychiatric diagnosis. The lifetime prevalence of mental health problems was 51.7%, with 50% of onsets between ages 17 and 21. Sport-specific instruments generally reported fair diagnostic accuracy, but without sufficient sensitivity or specificity for practical use. Among elite athletes in psychiatric treatment, anxiety disorders were the most common (69%), followed by affective disorders (51%) and eating disorders (26%). Comorbidity was generally common between disorders.

Regarding help-seeking, the performance narrative – defined as a single-minded focus on performance that justifies, and even demands, the exclusion of any form of psychological weakness – forced elite athletes to adopt various impression management strategies to hide their psychological suffering. In closing, being invited to witness the em-bodied experiences of a female elite athlete struggling with and seeking treatment for an eating disorder reminds us that behind every prevalence number there is a person.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH, 2023. p. 114
Series
Avhandlingsserie för Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan ; 28
National Category
Applied Psychology Sport and Fitness Sciences
Research subject
Social Sciences/Humanities
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-7460 (URN)978-91-988127-0-1 (ISBN)
Public defence
2023-02-03, Aulan, Lidingövägen 1, Stockholm, 15:30 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2023-01-04 Created: 2023-01-04 Last updated: 2023-01-13Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(843 kB)9 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 843 kBChecksum SHA-512
55b5a1fb622dbe1f6b74531286acb48290d433216087659a99f527519995705c31bf8052661216019cb8644ec982592615cf23ac50640c79f65cfd2211153dc0
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Åkesdotter, CeciliaKenttä, Göran

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Åkesdotter, CeciliaKenttä, Göran
By organisation
Department of Physiology, Nutrition and Biomechanics
In the same journal
International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology
Sport and Fitness SciencesApplied Psychology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 9 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 386 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf