Mental Health Moments: Kyler Little and Andrew Cooper, D1on1

Andrew Cooper and Kyler Little are part of the D1on1 team! Read about their mission and see stories of student-athletes on their website.

Tell me a little bit about what led to D1on1 - when did you start prioritizing your mental health and at what point did that turn into cultivating this community of athletes around your mission?

Like many people, our mental health journeys started from difficult experiences. For Andrew, his father passed his freshman year of college. For me, I went through depression and was shocked into action with Tyler's passing. Because mental health struggles often begin in this way, it’s so critical to stay in tune with society and how events impact people. In 2020, with many athletes having their careers abruptly ended, with athletes dealing with innumerable racial injustices across America, and with athletes adjusting to quarantine, we felt empowered to take action, which ultimately turned into Str3ngth in Stories - a virtual mental health conference. Our D1on1 brand, at its core, empowers athletes to share their stories. We thought, what better way to do this than through small, vulnerable group conversations, designed to be highly intimate and safe.

How do you personally prioritize your mental health? How has COVID impacted mental health for you?

For me, I realize mental health is the lens through which I view my life. When the lens is dirty (e.g. it's foggy or has rain on it), life is difficult. COVID forced everyone to adapt to a world where most things we took for granted became impossible. I realized how reliant I was on those things, and I had to figure out things I could do, that had no dependencies on circumstances/others to keep my mental health strong.

Why do you think stigma exists, and what can we do to combat it?

Stigma around mental health exists because stigma around being vulnerable about weakness exists. It’s not a new concept, as people with “issues” have historically always been marked as different in society. Mental health has also historically been stigmatized because our understanding of the brain has been very limited until now. Scientifically, we now know that depression is literally a sickness of the brain, just as someone might have the flu, but this idea still isn’t widely accepted.

Additionally, in the 21st century, there are new complex factors that heighten the stigma that exists, such as superficiality on social media and capitalism (e.g. the “American” dream). There is a notion that we can/need to strive for perfection, and when we’re not perfect, we’re failures. This is a fundamentally flawed idea, and in my opinion, the best way to combat any stigma is through conversation and vulnerability within that. The best way to do this is through intimate storytelling, which is the reason why we created Str3ngth in Stories. As one of my favorite authors Paulo Coelho says, “Even if my neighbor doesn’t understand my religion or understand my politics, he can understand my story.”

At what stages should someone seek professional help for their mental health?

I don’t think you need to be in a “stage” to seek professional help for your mental health. Anyone and everyone can benefit from improving their mental health; the mind is a muscle like any other, and it needs to be exercised to become and stay healthy.

What advice would you give a coach, family, or friend that wants to help someone struggling with their mental health?

Strength is asking for help. This is the hardest step for anyone, but being willing to ask someone for help accomplishes two things:
(1) admittance is the first step of recovery for anything
(2) it lets those around you know you have a problem and they can then help

On (2), we as a society need to do a better job educating people about how to deal with mental health issues. If someone has a cut, we learn to sterilize the wound and bandage it. How come we don’t teach people the analogous process for dealing with people with mental health issues?

You two do a wonderful job at creating a platform for people to speak about their experiences, how have you seen this affect both the storytellers and the listeners of these stories?

Very simply, stories bring people closer together in a way unlike anything else. It’s a part of our core human existence to share our experiences. The earliest recognized art is literally cavemen and women writing on walls. Through sharing our stories, we’re able to empathize, and subsequently to care and to love. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen philosopher, says to love is to understand another’s suffering, and I firmly believe that’s what storytelling facilitates.

Do you see a difference in the response and culture surrounding mental health and illness toward student-athletes as to other students?

Mental health issues are highly prevalent among all college students. Because of this, it seems to me that the culture in both athletic and non-athletic spaces seems to be highly similar. I can only speak to my experience as a student-athlete, and in that space, mental health issues are often characterized as character flaws or weaknesses that must be fought through. Even things that aren’t, on the surface, mental health issues become mental health issues. For example, athletes normalize body image issues because they might see a certain body type as a requirement to succeed in their sport, when in reality, it might be highly damaging to both their physical and mental health.