Depression is serious health risk for college athletes, a new report finds, and it does not matter how well they play on the field.

A new in-depth report in the Atlantic explores the reality of poor mental health among college athletes and how the team culture contributes. For Jonathon Meldrum, a former standout offensive lineman at Syracuse, all-day practices would sometimes conjure thoughts of suicide.

"He hit me back so hard," Meldrum, now 27, told the Atlantic of one day in practice in particular. "And I just started tearing up. If I'd had a gun, I'd have probably put a bullet in my head."

The drill Meldrum took part in was routine for an offensive lineman and he had just crushed the ball carrier on the previous play.

Meldrum said depression was in his family and his mother was a drug addict as well. He said he first dealt with his own bouts of depression in junior college when he started playing football.

"During my sophomore year [at Syracuse], I got so I wasn't able to control my ups and downs," Meldrum said. "I dreaded waking up. My body would ache. I felt physically sick.

"It was very hard, as a man playing D1 football, to go to somebody and say 'I'm having a hard time.'"

College students in general, not just athletes, are becoming depressed more often than ever before. More schools are creating programs to help students cope with anxiety and depression and the NCAA has done the same.

Combined with their own data, the NCAA is taking into account statistics from the American College Health Association as well as interviews with psychologists, former student-athletes and physical trainers to curb the issue.

At any given institution, a student-athlete often faces additional pressure on top of their studies, especially those on NCAA Division I athletic teams. Like an Ivy League or a medical student, a D1 student-athlete devotes the vast majority of their free time to team activities like practices and games.

They are expected to travel all over the country and skip classes if need be. About 100,000 people attend D1 football games every Saturday during the season, especially at a power conference school, and the games are broadcast nationally. Millions tune in ever year for the men's basketball NCAA Tournament.

Even for athletes in a sport that does not get attention, unexpected factors like injuries can be major contributors to depression and anxiety.

"It was the first time I had ever experienced a true injury such as a stress fracture that really kept me out of the sport for such a long time," former Georgetown track runner Katie McCafferty told the Atlantic.

In track and field, gymnastics or other related sports, eating disorders are much more common. For football players, alcohol abuse was more common.

The NCAA is addressing the problem and, in Jan. 2013, hired its first Chief Medical Officer. Brian Hainline will head up the NCAA's Sports Science Institute to carefully monitor health and safety among college athletes.

For some, like Meldrum, all it can take to begin recovering is for someone to check up on them.

"My coach saw me and said, 'Are you okay? You don't look okay.' At that point I started bawling," said, Meldrum, who was shortly thereafter referred to the mental health professionals. "After feeling bad for so many months-it was a huge weight off my shoulders."

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