- Simone Biles put the issue of mental health among in the spotlight at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Biles said her coping methods include taking one hour per day to worry about the things that cause anxiety.
- The 24-year-old gymnast keeps a list of things causing her anxiety, and opens it between 12PM and 1PM.
Simone Biles said she reserves one hour per day to worry about all the things that cause her to feel anxiety and writes it down in a journal.
Speaking during a video interview with People on Tuesday, the 24-year-old gold medal gymnast opened up about the trauma she deals with, that was, in part, drove her to withdraw from multiple finals at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
Biles got the "worry hour" idea from her therapist.
"I have pretty bad anxiety sometimes so she tells me in my worry journal to put from 12 to 1 p.m. — that's the time I've selected — and anything I've written down in my worry journal, I use that hour to worry about the things then," Biles told People Magazine. "And usually by the time 12 or 1 [p.m.] comes, I've already forgotten about all my worries so that kind of is a tool that helps me."
Biles put the issue of mental health struggles among athletes and the general public in the spotlight in July, when she took herself out of her first Tokyo Olympic medal event in the women's all-around final, and cited her mental health.
"It's been really stressful this Olympic games... it's been a long week, a long Olympic process, a long year," Biles said, per ESPN's Michele Steele. "I think we're a little too stressed out — we should be out here having fun and that's just not the case."
"Once I came out here, I was like, no the mental is not there," she added.
Biles later elaborated, saying she had a case of the "twisties" — a condition that causes athletes to get disoriented in the air. She returned to compete in the woman's balance beam final and won bronze.
Biles said she is still scared to do her full gymnastics routine, but has returned to practicing moves that don't involve involve twists, during an interview with the "Today Show" in October.