Thanks for sharing the story of Naomi Osaka, it's fascinating.

Although I am worried that the debate over her decision is off-base. It seems like one side is saying "mental health is important" and the other "do your job"

This misses the question of whether Naomi is acting in a way that helps or actually hurts her mental health. And I'm worried its the latter.

In The Coddling of the American Mind, Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff lay out three great "untruths" that are plaguing the modern world, including the Untruth of Fragility: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker.

Ironically, this is one area where athletes traditionally thrive. The dispassionate meritocracy of athletics forces you to confront your negative thoughts and overcome them to succeed.

This is one of those counter-intuitive ideas where the more you protect yourself from mental discomfort the safer you feel, but the more vulnerable you are.

I think about the passage in Harry Potter where Ron joins the quidditch team, and the bullying crushes him while it bounces of Harry. I'm not defending bullying (and I hope the reporters in these press conferences weren't engaging in it), but the point is that Harry had grown stronger through repeated exposure to taunts and ridicule.

I think Naomi's honesty about her anxiety is admirable, but I think her strategy is misguided and will ultimately backfire. For her sake, I hope I'm wrong. But I'm worried that most people are getting the issue of mental health as close to backwards as its possible to get