ABSTRACT
Anxiety is a natural, adaptive, self-protective, emotional, and physiological survival response. It is experienced by many athletes, domestic and global, across gender, age, culture, race, ethnicity, sports, and other dimensions of personal identity, within the context of their everyday life challenges. Some life challenges are experienced as minor inconveniences, daily hassles and situations athletes choose to put up with temporarily. When seen in this way, anxiety may be experienced as “normal”, with minimal physiological arousal and, overall, clearly manageable. With the foregoing as context, and irrespective of ongoing diagnostic nomenclature controversies, there is agreement that anxiety represents a common human experience and, by inference, is common among athletes. The good news about anxiety is that it is treatable. Ample evidence-based interventions exist providing choices relative to tailoring treatment plans that meet athletes’ needs.
