Ask a young person in crisis what helps them get through it, and the answer isn’t always what you’d expect. Alongside the support we know matters — a trusted adult, a counselor, a crisis line — something simpler keeps surfacing in their own words: movement.

The run that burns off a terrible day. The hoops you shoot until your head finally quiets. The walk you take when the loneliness gets loud. The team that makes you feel, even for an hour, like you belong somewhere.

Crisis Text Line recently released “Sports as a Coping Strategy for Youth in Crisis”, produced with funding support from Nike. It’s a first-of-its-kind look at how young people use sports and movement to get through their hardest moments, and what it found should change how we think about supporting youth mental health.

What We Learned

Our Research & Impact team analyzed de-identified crisis conversations to understand when and how young people turn to sports and movement as a way to cope. A few findings stood out.

Movement is one of the top ways young people cope. Among texters under 18, sports ranked as the third most-mentioned coping resource — behind only social connection and making art, and ahead of mental health services. Sixteen percent of young people mentioned sports, walking, or time outdoors as a way to cope. These aren’t casual mentions of a hobby; they’re young people naming what actually helps them survive a hard moment.

The young people turning to movement are in real distress. Among under 18 texters, those who mentioned sports discussed anxiety, stress, depression, and loneliness more often than our average. In other words, movement is showing up precisely where the pain is — as a tool young people reach for in a crisis.

Movement reaches young people the healthcare system often misses. Some of the young people who turn to sports and movement are the same ones least likely to access traditional care —awesome thank you Friday is fine as well all the executive team is at a board meeting this week. including young men and youth in rural communities, where providers are scarce, costs are high, and stigma can run deep. For them, a run or a pickup game isn’t a lesser option. It may be the only one within reach.

Why This Matters

For a long time, we’ve framed youth mental health support almost entirely around professional care, and that care is essential. But millions of young people can’t access traditional mental health care. There aren’t enough providers, appointments can be months away, and for many, cost or distance or stigma puts therapy out of reach entirely.

What this report shows is that young people are coping however they can, and movement is one of the most accessible tools they have. It requires no appointment, no insurance, and no having to say the hardest thing out loud. It’s immediate, it’s low-barrier, and it meets young people exactly where they are.

When we recognize movement as a legitimate coping strategy — not a replacement for care, but a real and valuable complement to it — we open up a way to support young people who might otherwise have nothing. A coach who checks in. A rec program that stays funded. A parent who encourages a walk after a hard day. A school that protects time for play. These are small, reachable interventions that can help a young person take a first step back toward feeling okay.

Where We Go From Here

This report is a reminder that the solutions to the youth mental health crisis won’t come from the clinical system alone. They’ll come from meeting young people where they already are — in their communities, on the court, on the trail and at recreational centers. They’ll come from recognizing and strengthening the accessible, everyday tools that young people are already using to survive.

At Crisis Text Line, that’s what our data insights make possible: not just supporting one person in a hard moment, but learning from millions of conversations what young people actually need — and helping the people around them show up more effectively.

Movement is one answer. There are more to find. And the better we listen to young people themselves, the closer we’ll get to a world where every one of them has what they need to get through — and to thrive.

Read the full report, “Sports as a Coping Strategy for Youth in Crisis,” produced with funding support from Nike.

Do you have any questions for our research team? Feel free to contact them: research@crisistextline.org.