When Figure Skating and Mental Health Collide: Perspectives from Olympic Silver Medalist Elizabeth Manley
By: Eileen Huang
“I tried to become really public about it and I wanted to tell my story, but in the 80’s, the stigma was at its highest. People weren’t ready to put Canada’s sweetheart and mental health in the same sentence.”
Image provided courtesy of Elizabeth Manley
Canada’s sweetheart, Elizabeth (Liz) Manley, is a decorated figure skater – she is a 1988 Olympic silver medalist, a 3-time Canadian champion, and inductee in the Canada Sports Hall of Fame. Throughout her skating career, Liz has publicly shared her difficult journey with mental health, and she is now using this personal experience to advocate for mental health.
I first heard Liz’s story as a second-year medical student in the introduction of my psychiatry block. It greatly resonated with me – I was inspired by how Liz found purpose from her struggles and has dedicated her post-skating career to mental health advocacy. Wanting to learn more about experience, I reached out to her for a detailed interview about her advocacy efforts - here is how it went!
Liz’s Struggle with Mental Health
My interview with Liz started with a discussion on how her clinical diagnosis of depression and anxiety affected her during the peak of her skating career. She described the day when she received her diagnosis: “I was very suicidal because I felt like everything I had worked for was stripped from me. I wasn’t going to skate anymore but the biggest issue I had during this whole journey was that I thought I had let everyone down. I thought I let my mom down, my family, my coaches, my organization, but the biggest one that was a real struggle for me was that I thought that I let the whole country down. I really thought the world would be a better place without me.”
Liz was struggling to find treatment after receiving a diagnosis. She said “I was given two choices of treatment. [Drug therapy] was just something I didn’t want to because I was drug tested all the time as an athlete and we never knew what was legal. The other option was talk therapy and we couldn’t afford it. Very few psychologists and psychiatrists in those days and if you could go, super expensive and you were on a waiting list.” Dr. Terry Orlick reached out to help her for free. She described this experience: “It was really a fairy-tale. It was really having somebody step up and say, ‘I want to help.’ One session turned into hundreds, turned into 4 years, and turned into me in Calgary.” During this time, Liz learned to prioritize her own mental health by listening to her body and recognizing her needs. She explained “I use this term ‘selfish’, which doesn’t mean that I’m expecting people to do things for me. I mean that I had to make changes in my life for me that were going to help me become healthier and be able to cope and understand what I was going through. One of the things is that I couldn’t do a lot was media. All they wanted was the juicy story of my mental health since it was such a big story in those days. I needed a day of… just to gather my anxiety, I worked it out with my coach. If I was in what I call a ‘red light day’, then I would take the day off. Once I started to love myself again and love skating again, that’s when I became successful.”
Mental Health Stigma
While learning to navigate her mental illnesses, Liz also worked hard to overcome the associated stigma. As an athlete, she was told to “take your tears out to the parking lot, nobody wants to see them.” She added, “I tried to become really public about it and I wanted to tell my story, but in the 80’s, the stigma was at its highest. People weren’t ready to put Canada’s sweetheart and mental health in the same sentence.” Liz was determined to write a book and have the proceeds go to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). However, when she received the proofs for her book, she found that half her story was missing. She was told that “the world is not ready to hear that in depth so we [the publishers] just wanted to tone it down a bit”. Liz believes that the story was missing crucial parts that could have helped many people. Since then, she has made it her goal to raise awareness for mental health through keynote speeches, talks, fundraisers, and other advocacy events.
A Distinction Between Mental Health and Mental Illness
Liz went on to describe how her experiences inspired her career as a life coach. Liz said “My main career now is being a life coach and I work with all ranges of people. As great as the Olympic medal is, I really truly believe it was a steppingstone for something more that I was supposed to be doing in life. Just helping people, especially during today’s time with our society, the pandemic, the lockdowns. With everything that’s been happening, there are a lot of people who are struggling and a lot of people who don’t realize they are struggling … I’m really about mindfulness and inspiring [my clients] and giving them goals to achieve. It’s about creating a pathway of positivity and inspiration.” As a life coach, she helps individuals who are struggling to move forward in life by identifying personal values and overcoming mental barriers. She describes her approach as one that is highly collaborative, forward thinking, and focused on goal setting. This work demonstrates the distinction between mental health and mental illness. It allows us to recognize that good mental health can be achieved despite a mental illness diagnosis, while poor mental health in the absence of a mental illness can still diminish one’s quality of life. These two concepts exist on two separate continuums, as they are not the same, nor are they mutually exclusive.
About your Mental Health, School Mental Health Ontario, https://smho-smso.ca/students/learn-more/about-your-mental-health/
Work with At-Risk Populations
Image provided courtesy of Elizabeth Manley.
In our discussion of mental health equity, Liz shared some details about her childhood, explaining “My childhood was not a glamourous childhood. We were poor, my mom struggled to keep me in a sport. It was a struggle. I didn’t have the ability, like some of the athletes that were competing against me, to [wear] the prettier dresses or [work with] the best choreographers in the world.” This now motivates Liz to bring her skating workshops into small towns which may lack these opportunities. The inequities extended beyond the world of skating. Liz described how difficult it was for her to access mental healthcare “There were very few psychiatrists and psychologists available, and if you could go, super expensive, and you were on a waiting list.” She mentioned the lack of support from her organization as well and said: “There is no one really there to work with you.” She is grateful to Dr. Terry Orlick who extended his services for free at that time.
Ottawa’s first responders make up an at-risk population that Liz currently works with. She’s been working with this population f or almost two years and has been able to provide confidential support which her clients greatly value. She shares that “when the [they] come to me, they’re not afraid that I will go back to report to the chief.” Liz describes this population as one that often suffers with mental illnesses but hesitates to share their feelings in a male-dominated population.
Through her lived experience, Liz shared her hopes of filling a mental health need for professional athletes. She explains that professional athletes are privileged with access to sports psychologists but lack mental health support in all other areas of their lives: “Sports psychology is what [the teams] are focused in on. Their performance. Their game playing. But who is working with them off the ice? I’m looking at these 17- and 18-year-olds who are suddenly thrown into the NHL. Who is really checking in on them? I remember when I turned professional - I was on the road for 11 and a half months of the year. It was a lifestyle I wasn’t used to at all. I used to bring a lot of my personal issues onto the ice with me because I couldn’t get them out of my head.” She also commented on how athletes may be hesitant to seek care. Liz said “I look at these hockey players. How many have left a season with substance abuse because they are self-medicating? They certainly don’t want to tell the team or the coach because then they’ll look weak.” It is telling that professional athletes, who are among the most privileged in terms of access to health professionals, cannot get support for mental health issues when they need them.
Personal Reflections
Our conversation prompted me to reflect on the state of mental health stigma today and how I may be able to use my platform as a medical student and future physician. Although significant progress has been made to destigmatize mental illness, there remains a lot of work that still needs to be done. In 2019, 75% of working Canadians reported that they would be reluctant, or would refuse, to disclose personal mental illnesses in the workplace. [2] This stigma is just as prominent in the healthcare community. The prevalence of mental illness in healthcare providers has increased throughout the COVID-19 pandemic but around half of providers report discomfort with seeking mental health treatment. [3] The hesitancy to seek mental health services in the healthcare community is largely attributed to self-stigmatization, fear of judgement from peers, and concerns regarding the consequences of disclosure on their professional careers. [4] As a medical student, I strongly believe that we must look inwards to decrease mental health stigma within our healthcare community if we expect the same of our patients.
From our conversation, I also learned how professional athletes may often have trouble accessing mental health services. It was also inspiring to witness how Liz uses her difficult journey with depression and anxiety as motivation for mental health advocacy. To follow Liz’s ongoing work or for more information on her story, follow her on Twitter @Lizmanley88 and check out her autobiography Thumbs Up!