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About
...the project
"Playing Mind Games" was created as a journalism senior project at Purchase College in Westchester County, New York. Combining the interests of creator Virginia Redlon of sports and people, "Playing Mind Games" provides a platform for athletes of all kinds to tell the story of their struggles with mental health. Created with the hopes of furthering the discussion of mental health in the sports world and industry, the project uses multimedia - video and print pieces - to tell these stories and help destigmatize the issue.
For so long, talking about mental health has been viewed by American society as a display of weakness. It is this view that leads to the silencing of the millions suffering.
With any physical ailment we go see a doctor, so why is there such a stigma of doing the same for a mental illness? Depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses are just the same as a torn ACL, a broken bone or a pulled muscle, but are not treated the same.
As a society we need to be better.
Major steps have been taken recently with more and more professional athletes coming forward to talk about their mental health struggles. Big names in sports like Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Brandon Marshall, and Ronda Rousey have shed light on the darkest times of the lives. These high-profile athletes have become advocates for talking about mental health.
And the more we talk about mental health, the closer we get to erasing the stigma surrounding it. "Playing Mind Games" hopes to play a part in that.
...the creator
My name is Virginia Redlon and I am a senior journalism student at Purchase College, graduating with a B.A. in the Spring of 2018.
I recently played my last collegiate lacrosse game, having played four years at the Division III level at Purchase, and for eight years before that. It is my lacrosse career that my love of sports stemmed from, that and all of the incredible human stories told through sports.
I have always been interested in hearing other people's stories, and I thought I could be one to help tell them. This led to journalism.
I combined these interests with the knowledge of how mental health is treated within the sports world to create "Playing Mind Games." I hope hearing other people's stories helps in the mission to destigmatize mental health in our society, and lets others know that they are not alone in their struggles and help them get the help they may need.
As someone who shares these struggles in the forms of anxiety and depression, producing this project actually led to reaching for help for myself.
This leap took me years to make due to a stigma I still held while asking my subjects to tell their deeply personal stories. I realized this is not a weakness, and if I was going to continue to ask these questions of these people, I needed to ask myself the same.
So, I thank this project for opening up that part of me and I hope it can do the same for others.
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