When looking around Summit County and other areas of the Colorado High Country, it can be easy to be fooled. 

While it appears that Summit County residents are living life to the fullest by jumping off snow-covered cliffs, speeding down single-track trails or reeling in massive trout, many individuals are struggling with their mental health. 

Although they are surrounded by some of the most breathtaking scenery, mountain towns face serious mental health challenges, with ski towns having significantly higher rates of suicide compared to the national average, according to the Colorado School of Public Health.

With these startling statistics in mind, PSYFI Performance Psychology founder David Mykel hosted a talk at Axis Sports Medicine in Silverthorne on May 28.

Mykel opened his presentation by explaining how he believes most people currently mitigate their mental health in the mountains.

“What I have found is that many of us have come to the mountains to mitigate our mental health,” Mykel said. “What I have also seen, is that a lot of us are pushing down the actual problems and the things that we came to the mountains to hopefully heal. Those things are actually slowly killing us.”

Mykel once looked strong, acted strong and felt strong, but was actually crumbling inside due to suicidal depression. Like Mykel, many others in the Summit County community may often try to escape from their current emotional and mental state by filling their days with mountain adventures.

These mountain activities often give people a temporary sense of control and relief, but as soon as they return home, individuals are met with the same lingering feelings or emotions. Mykel argues that the reason why people look to the mountains for solace is out of fear. 

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“Fear is the reason why we go to the mountain and we push ourselves at a certain level,” Mykel said, “because we can’t get what we get in the mountains when we are binging on Netflix, when we are doom scrolling on our phones. There is something inside the mountains that has been there for tens of millions of years that we are trying to tap into.”

Instead of running to nature for a quick dopamine or adrenaline escape, Mykel suggests integrating fully with nature.

“If we are honest, we are not here for fun — we are here to prove something,” Mykel said. “We want to prove something to ourselves, to our loved ones — that we can do something that other people are scared of. We want to prove to people that we are alive and that we are in control, and what better place to do it than the ultimate proving ground of nature, something that can’t be tamed?”

Through his own experience and research, Mykel has developed a method that allows people to use the effects of dopamine positively instead of being used by it. Over the last 25 years, Mykel has developed the a methodology that pairs together brain, body and breath.

“What I have found is that when you train these three things together, you can have more mental clarity and emotional control,” Mykel said. “You can have nervous system regulation. You can have more resilience and stamina. Things that we all want, so we can play even more.”

According to Mykel, one of the best ways to train the brain, body and breath is to go through the mental exercise of naming current feelings and emotions. The process not only allows someone to easily recognize what may be going on internally, but it takes the power away from the situation as a whole.

From there, individuals can then begin the process of taming their mental health struggle(s).

Another effective mental health tool that Mykel recommends to his athletes is diaphragmatic breathing. The process allows people to tune into how they are feeling, reset and calm their emotions all while being surrounded by nature.

“When we are anxious, stressed out and depressed, we are acidic on a PH level,” Mykel said. “You go into nature and nature can feel that and it tries to extract all of the negativity. … People have known this for thousands of years, but we are forgetting it. We need to integrate into nature, not escape. It wants to heal us, but it will continue to do this if we try to conquer it.”

Mykel closed out his talk by answering questions from the crowd of several dozen people. Mykel hopes to host more talks on mental health in the coming months. For more information, visit Psyfi.co.