ONCE the rapturous applause has faded, and the medals are tucked away in a drawer, what comes next is a moment many athletes dread.

Leaving the sport that has consumed their every waking moment for decades can understandably leave a gaping chasm.

Someone who has a better idea than most of the cognitive processes involved is John Marchant. A senior sport psychologist at the sportscotland Institute of Sport, for the past decade he has worked with elite athletes across Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games sports including gymnastics, cycling, badminton and swimming. A key part of his role is to help address the complex range of issues involved in navigating that tricky period of post-retirement adjustment, where athletes can feel a sense of loss at bringing their sporting career to a close.

While the 2014 Commonwealth Games is still more than a year away, Marchant is already working closely with many Scottish sportsmen and women on planning their "exit strategy". The weeks and months leading up to and after a home Games like this, he said, are traditionally much busier than a typical international event.

It is a phenomenon already seen following London 2012 when swimmers Rebecca Adlington and David Carry, cyclist Victoria Pendleton, badminton player Susan Egelstaff and, most recently, Scotland's six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy, all retired.

"After retiring an athlete will go through a period of bereavement where, having spent several decades training full time, they will miss it," he says. "They are used to waking up every morning and thinking about their sport. Not doing that any more takes time to get used to.

"There is an element of grieving and reflection, but eventually, as they replace that time in their day with other activities, it will pass. It's like when you break up with a partner, you don't suddenly forget about them in the first couple of days; it takes time to heal. That's all a healthy part of the transition process."

The smoothness of passage from sporting world to "Civvy Street", says Marchant, depends on whether an athlete's retirement is by choice.

"You need to determine first of all whether it's voluntary or involuntary because if it's the latter, there is less time to prepare an athlete for that," he says. "Involuntary can be down to injury or de-selection. Ultimately, it's all about perception of control. If you feel you are in control of your own destiny and can come towards a natural ending, then it's your decision to walk away. What often causes problems is when someone feels they don't have that choice."

It is a scenario of which Edinburgh-based Marchant, a former snooker player, has first- hand experience.

"I used to play snooker 10 hours a day and went from that to nothing," he says. "I had no preparation in advance and it took me 18 months to get over it.

"During the last six months of my career I had got to a point where I wasn't getting any better. No matter how much I put in I wasn't going to progress. I had fulfilled my potential.

"Realising that made it my choice and a bit easier to deal with. Even so, I was still left with this void. That leads to something called 'end of the world syndrome' where you are left thinking: 'What am I going to do'?"

Marchant, 42, cites former boxer Ricky Hatton as a classic example of what happens when an athlete retires feeling unfulfilled. "He retired, basically let himself go, launched a comeback and lost. After his last fight, Hatton said: 'I've had another go, I know I'm not good enough any more, but had to go through this to realise that'. I think he should be OK now.

"Football is a good example where athletes don't always prepare themselves for a rainy day then, all of sudden, they get an injury and are out of the game. That's when you get the dysfunctional behaviour, such as drinking or gambling. When you've had the buzz and high of playing in front of 50,000 people who adored you, you look for other ways to replace that."

Key is tackling what is dubbed "athlete ID", the degree to which someone identifies with their sporting role. "What we look at are their coping resources to adjust when they step away from their sport," says Marchant. "Essentially it's about helping change that uni-dimensional perspective of themselves as 'just an athlete'. It's getting them to see there is a whole world out there rather than simply this bubble of an athletic environment. Otherwise, what happens is they find dysfunctional ways of coping, which can lead to disorders such as anxiety, depression or even addictions."

But Marchant is determined to help as many Scots as possible avoid these potential pitfalls.

"Between now and next summer I will be working with athletes and making sure they are prepared," he says. "One of the things I do is make them aware of the transferrable skills they've got, such as an ability to work in a team, perform under pressure, meet deadlines, perseverance, and setting goals that can be used in a non-sporting environment. Many see these as being run of the mill – they don't realise how special they are."