Your position appears to be trying to not demean people with “real” mental health issues by allowing people with lesser issues, or those caused by different factors, the same grace to deal with them how they need to. Yet what you are actually doing is demeaning the much larger group of people who suffer in different ways by telling them they are not worthy of grace.
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I suspect it was easier to say ‘mental health issues’ than to try and go into detail. Even having it explained to you, it seems you don’t actually understand it.
Her aunt also died last week. I don’t know if this was a contributory factor to the twisties or in addition to. It’s not for me to speculate, but it’s clear she didn’t feel she could compete in specific events at that time.
I’m not sure what qualifies you as being the gatekeeper of other people’s mental health, just because you ‘know people with mental health conditions’.
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Why didn’t she just withdraw, then? 
If she had explained that her aunt has just died and she isn’t mentally in the right place, the vast majority of people would have understood.
Of course, it’s the vocal minority who would have castigated her for doing so.
Not sure why you’re asking me. I’m not her.
To the best of my knowledge, she isn’t a member of this forum. 
She could come out and admit it.
If she doesn’t bottle it.
There has been a lot of much needed public education on how clinical depression is not just something you can choose to take a positive mental state over and choose to cheer yourself up while suffering. The downside, is people maybe now downplay the impact and realness of anxiety and depression that are secondary to other life circumstances. Just because it isnt some inherent fuckery of your brain chemistry doesnt mean its impact isnt real
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Because she was taking it day by day in an attempt to salvage something from the situation. Why if there are multiple events over multiple days should she fuck the whole thing off on day 1?
I don’t think people appreciate just how serious a risk to her health there was in trying to compete under those circumstances. She does things that if she executes them poorly are likely to ruin her life and possibly leave her paralyzed. She was dealing with something that meant she had no faith in her ability to execute any of her maneuvers. Asking her to go out and there an compete under those conditions is the equivalent of asking an F1 driver to race without brakes or a working steering wheel. Except rather than being able to blame such a failure on the car, she was having to face up to it being her own brain that has betrayed her.
Is not the very real risk to her safety, for the benefit of almost nothing (she couldnt reasonably hope to win a medal like that) a reasonable enough justification to sit it out? Can people not understand how such a situation would cause genuine anxiety and depression in an athlete who had known nothing in her short life other than absolute excellence, such that referring to her issues as being an issue of mental health is reasonable? Do you really think people would give her more leeway if she explained it was because a member of her family died than because she feared being maimed if she tried to compete?
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When you enter a given sport, you do so fully aware of what excellence requires.
A family bereavement is an altogether different matter.
She has been competing and winning at the highest level of the sport for 10 years, becoming the most decorated gymnast of all time in the process. She’s aware of the risks and has eaten them up. This is a case of her brain temporarily betraying her, making the risk to reward balance a pointless thing to even consider
Which proves my point. If she had cited family problems, nobody (sane) would have held it against her.
Nobody (sane) should be holding her mental health against her.
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How does it prove your point?
Furthermore, how can anyone sane hold it against her for refusing to go out there under conditions where she’s physically unable to compete and facing massively increased risk to her health? She is not saying that the risks for gymnastics are too much. She is saying the risk of gymnastics in her then present state were too much.
I give up.
Fair enough. I’m saying I dont understand how you think proved a point…im failing to see the dots you are connecting, but fair enough.
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I agree with lots of the things already said. Goldfish bowl, expectation, social media, and then a whole mini industry around the biggest stars too, given the sums of money involved, which adds its own weight.
I doubt we are less resilient than in previous generations, just that some additional factors are in play, as well as greater awareness.
On the upside things that need to be talk about are being talked about.
Err that’s exactly how it is though.
Today I feel fine, happy to go out and looking forward to the weekend, yesterday I skipped 5 aside because I just couldn’t feel like leaving my room and going out and playing football and yet all it is is a kick about.
And that’s only me. People are in worst positions than I am. This stuff is a daily struggle sometimes I’m hoping I’m over that spell for now and can train on Saturday.
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As for Osaka, having to pull out of tournaments because she doesn’t feel comfortable on press conferences was beyond a joke.
Ferguson didn’t do one with the BBC for 7 years because they justifyingly called his son a bit dodgy.
Easily her coach or spokesperson could have stepped in.
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Some people just don’t understand mental health issues at all and seem to try to demean anything that doesn’t fit their narrow perspective.
For the record, even someone with severe depression is going to have normal days. It’s not always something that will weigh down on you until it magically goes away. It’s just something that gets better on some days, gets worse on others, and a massive pain in the ass to deal with. Schizophrenia victims don’t always carry about their hallucinations either. So to make it seem as though her being able to compete on some days demonstrates that she doesn’t have a problem, is utter bullshit.
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I think the problem was precisely that they couldn’t. She was contractually obliged to do so herself, and they weren’t willing to be flexible on it.