Teaching those in charge and then protecting athletes of all ages in this delicate area seems like a luxury. “For various reasons, there are very few groups working in this area. Individual athletes come to me more. As for professional teams, he doesn’t know it, and his team never learns. Teams, either because they cannot financially support some of the sports psychology and support, or because they have not yet realized the need for it, very few turn to us,” emphasizes Mr. Vertopoulos.

But what happens when a professional, accomplished athlete turns to a sports psychologist? What is the first thing he asks for? Deal with stress? To keep his contract? “There are two separate sections here. One is that a professional is faced with an emotional difficulty (anxiety, anger) or a slightly more technical one, a psycho-spiritual difficulty, which we want to strengthen by concentration, learning to set goals – increasing motivation. Another case is when he tells us that he has some goals. Just like he has a coach or a nutritionist, he wants to build his psychology and his mindset to achieve other goals as well.”

– Is the ability of the athlete or parent to perceive a problem a barrier? Is it ultimately taboo to turn away from a problem because they don’t want to admit that they might need help?

“When an athlete stops active, he experiences loss or personal failure.”

– In different cases, everything you said is applicable. First, it’s taboo. Very rarely, but I noticed such a problem. I have seen in workshops that the initial perception is “why should I go to a sports psychologist?”. It’s a delusion. And going to a nutritionist doesn’t mean I’m overweight, it means I’m going to learn how to give my body what it needs. On the other hand, parents or coaches do not always have the understanding to distinguish some of the difficulties that may not be so obvious.

But what happens when the lights go out? When does an athlete stop active activities? Mr. Vertopoulos characteristically says: “At the moment, at the end of a career, whether due to age or injury, we see a lot of difficulties. Athletes often get depressed. Our job is to help them not see themselves as an extension of their career. We want them to have the feeling that they are people who are trying to become as perfect as possible, and a very important part of their life that they love and do with passion and professionally, for example. football. This is very important in perception, because when an athlete stops, he experiences a loss or personal failure. This is the main component of depression. That’s why athletes need to have a different mindset before they stop. Competitive championship also implies the personal development of an athlete. Championship is not bad. It’s something wonderful. He gives us as many amazing and touching examples as he does in the last days.

– A distinction that is useful and can be understood by someone without special knowledge is that a melancholic mood is one thing, a depressive mood is another, and depression is another. We can all have a melancholic mood. It’s not depression. Depression is a set of characteristics that have a duration of at least two weeks, based on the diagnostic criterion in which we see that a depressive mood is also present. We can be irritable, we cannot concentrate, sleep is disturbed, we do not get satisfaction and pleasure from anything. Depression is a disorder of great severity and many forms.”