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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Olympians And Mental Health: Listen To This Moving Tale of Why It's All So Hush-Hush
Every Olympian’s story is extraordinary. These are athletes who have spent all their waking hours training their bodies and minds to be the best in their chosen sport. Often we see their glory but fail to comprehend the full extent of the physical strength and mental stability that is needed to survive the grueling training.
Curiously enough, despite athletes handling a great amount of pressure and stress, hardly is there talk about their mental well-being. When mental stability is so crucial for their career, isn’t it puzzling that the conversation about their mental state is so minimal?
In this context, this audio program on how an independent filmmaker Brett Rapkin’s search for a less-invasive treatment for his eye condition led him to produce a film that tries to explore the myriad ways in which Olympic athletes face mental health problems, is moving.
Rapkin’s inspiration was Olympian Steven Holcomb’s heart-rending story before he won the gold for America in 2010 as captain of the bobsled team. Earlier, in 2007, he had attempted to kill himself by consuming sleeping pills. Brett talked to Holcomb, who narrated to him what it felt like to gradually lose his eyesight while still competing. Holcomb was facing a double whammy — physical degeneration and mental illness — both of which have been rendered unacceptable in our society that cannot bear to think of its athletes as ‘weak’ or ‘incapable’ in any way.
As clinical psychologist Dr Scott Goldman says, the “roller-coaster” ride of training, trials and championships is an onslaught on the senses. “I think many of them are really exhausted ..."
Brett believes it is time to chronicle these ‘other’ stories of athleticism, and that is what he is doing in his film The Weight of Gold. And really, if the physically and mentally strongest among us can open up about their struggles, it might indeed go a long way in fighting the stigma associated with mental illness.
