They finally did it.
After 47 years in the NBA, the Denver Nuggets reached the basketball mountaintop and struck gold. Jubilant and long-suffering Nuggets fans watched their team defeat the Miami Heat on June 12 and at last hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Heart palpitations, gnawed fingernails and cold sweats have been replaced by overwhelming joy – a welcome feeling for a fanbase that has stuck with the team despite decades of heartbreak.
For fans, this range of emotions can be a potent mix across sports.
As a big hockey fan, Emily Hemendinger, MPH, LCSW, clinical director of the OCD Program and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, recalled a recent series-deciding game in the NHL playoffs.
“I was so anxious and stressed, one of my eyes was seriously twitching,” said Hemendinger, herself a big Montreal Canadiens fan. “My partner is a Dallas Stars fan, and I really wanted them to do well this year in game seven against the Kraken. I was so anxious, but I wasn't even enjoying the game. It prompted me to say, ‘Wait, I'm not even enjoying this experience. Why am I watching this if it's causing so much anxiety? Let me try to reframe this.’"
In the following Q&A, Hemendinger outlines how sports fandom brings mental health benefits, while detailing how fans can also find a way to reframe their relationship with sports to strike a healthier balance with their teams through a strategy of radical acceptance.