Overcoming the Struggles of Hypoglycemia and Burnout

This is written for all the student-athletes out there who have big dreams of their own. Whether or not you have gone through your own set of personal struggles while on your journey as an athlete, this article is meant to relate your experiences as an athlete with my own, helping you get to know me better while understanding the purpose of this blog. It’s designed to help people like you understand the types of individual struggles student-athletes can go through, as well as how to overcome them. While reading this article, I want you all to think about your lives as student-athletes, and how your shortcomings as an athlete have shaped you into the person you are today. Here, I will tell you all my experience as a passionate athlete, perhaps relating my life as an athlete to a few of the experiences that you’ve had, but also adding a personal touch in learning a little more about me (your co-founder) and my own personal story.

Before I begin, I want all my youth readers to understand that I’m pretty similar to all of  you. I was born in a family down in the suburbs of Washington, and never went through any crazy issues as I grew up. This article won’t be about some other-worldly experience I had, but rather one that could have happened to you, or even something you are struggling with right now. I’m one of the millions of athletes in our country, and probably one of the few who speaks out about the things I’ve experienced. This is what happened to me, and I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to any of you.

Now, without further ado, here is my story.

I discovered my love for swimming at a pretty young age. In elementary school, I joined a sports club, and I started my adventure as an ‘athlete’ while also living out my life as a happy child. There, in the tiny little kiddie pool at my 3rd grade swim party, I discovered my passion for the water. Starting in the summer of 2015, I became the coolest curly-haired swimmer on the block. But as the years passed and middle school started, my life took a turn, and I started to struggle with anxiety and stress both at practice and at school. Without my parents taking me to a doctor to find out why I was having so much anxiety, panic attacks, or why I wasn’t dropping time in my swims for the past 3 years, I wouldn’t have known that I struggled with more than just ‘the usual stress overload.’

I found out that I had developed a moderate case of hypoglycemia at just 14 years old. All simply because I wasn’t eating enough while over exercising.

Hypoglycemia is a glucose disorder. No, it’s not Diabetes, but rather a condition where your blood sugar levels go below the average range your body needs to properly function, putting it in simple terms. My brain, consequently, thought I was starving, stealing packs and packs of glucose from my muscles whenever I ate food, and thus putting me in a danger zone. In a future article, I will explore the effects and causes of this disorder more in-depth, but for now, this is a good summarization of my case of Hypoglycemia. Here’s how I got it:

Throughout my time in middle school, I struggled with my physical appearance. Quarantine led me to overdose on my phone usage and took me down a Tik Tok spiral. Seeing skinny influencers made me believe that those bodies were ideal in our society. For the next 4-5 months, I exercised rigorously. Not just an average 45 minute workout, but repeating that intense volume multiple times a day, working out up to 3 different occasions daily. I was barely eating, losing weight, and lost my self-confidence. All I cared about were those 3 “skinny” lines down my stomach.

I bet any girl reading this can relate when I say social media really spiraled my perception of a “normal” body image. From doing those 10-minute ab workouts all the skinny influencers recommended to eating an average of 2 meals daily, my body was suffering. This, later on, caused my ‘freak outs’ during my practices. My brain was on overdrive; not only was I not fueling my body properly, but I was also overworking myself due to the strenuous amount of exercise I was doing. My muscles and body were weak and starved. This had caused my head to think all about how horrible and hard the next swim workout would be, or how slow I was compared to my teammates. I’d cry in the locker room stalls to get out of swimming. I was in a pretty bad mental and physical place.

I cared about my sport — I always have, and I always will. Since I was young, I have always been a committed swimmer. I’d go to all 18 hours of weekly training, push myself above what I was asked to do, and yet I still suffered. I still didn’t drop time and qualify for big meets, and I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. 

My brain and body weren’t receiving enough nutrients because of the lack of calories in my diet. Hence, my immune system weakened, and my body started ‘freaking out,’ leading me to have panic attacks for no reason at all. I remember an instance that triggered a panic attack simply due to a lunch lady denying me a cookie in 8th grade. Funny, but not funny. In a nutshell, my visit to the doctor told me that all these problems could be fixed if I started eating more and moderating my training. 

Wouldn’t that make me fat and bloated? I thought. That would make me feel too full and slow at practice. 

News flash! It didn’t.

I gained 20 pounds healing from this condition, and I can confidently say that I have never been happier with my body image or my self-esteem. Oh, and trust me, you won’t get fat. I admit I still had my own sets of typical worries, but my anxiety slowly decreased, and pretty soon the locker-room crying sessions at practice soon became a distant memory. I started resting more throughout my in-season training, making sure I had time to relax and recharge as school, swim, and extracurriculars started to pile up. Eventually, I felt happy, stable, and motivated about my sport, as well as my life in general. I started improving in my races, and pretty soon, I ended up qualifying in the Top 8 best swimmers at Regional competitions, being a varsity swimmer on my high school team, and being close to Pro Swim Series qualification times. 

In school, I began to overthink less about my grades and friendships. I was able to manage the life of a high-achieving student by developing study habits and time management skills, allowing me to participate in my daily practices while having time to relax. I learned that I love to help people, so I started participating in my school’s suicide prevention programs, outside medical internships, and even creating my own projects, such as this blog!.

All of my successes started by simply eating more and resting when my body needed it.

It is incredibly important to take care of your body. Forget any social standard of looking ‘skinny’ or following certain weight loss diets that cause painful lifestyles. I cannot stress this enough: you need to listen to your body, because eventually, it won’t give you a choice. Those panic attacks I had were certainly not my choice.

As a young athlete, you shouldn’t feel hungry or frequently get sick throughout the season. Over two thirds of America’s high school athletes have gone through burnout due a lack of knowing how to take care of themselves. If you believe something isn’t right, or if your stress levels seem a little too hard to manage, don’t be afraid to find some professional guidance that can help you figure out what’s wrong. Trust yourself, and trust your body. If you feel tired beyond what is normal for you, take a break. Trust me, it may actually be the key to your athletic success and overall well-being. 

Balancing your academics with sports, extracurriculars, personal life and mental health is no easy feat. I want my personal experience to resonate with those going through similar circumstances in order for you all to become aware of your bodies, to train in healthy ways, and to take action if necessary. My experience with burnout is just one of the many that exist out there. We need to normalize that feeling anxious and fatigued as athletes can be more than just being ‘lazy’ or ‘not training enough.’

I encourage you to think about your experience as a student athlete, or to talk to someone who is one, and ask them about their ups and downs with this lifestyle. It’s difficult to balance everything all at once — from school, to training, to friends, and to mental health. Our platform invites athletes like you to grow aware of your struggles, and to take action if necessary. You deserve to have a normal life, and no matter how far you wish to take your athletic or academic careers, you need balance.

You need to be healthy. 

In the near future, our blog staff plans to talk with doctors who are more knowledgeable about this topic, as well as interviewing student athletes like you about your experiences to highlight the different struggles we face and how to overcome them.

We strive to build a personal, passionate community where student athletes can learn more about balancing their lifestyle in a healthy way. Being aware of our bodies takes us one step closer to working towards a more efficient approach to our sports and daily lives.