As summer approaches, many begin to enjoy the outdoors, whether it be hiking, surfing, SUPing, or signing up for every fun-run possible. The sun consistently shines and our mind and body begins to tell us it’s adventure time. But, what happens when movement and activity has a setback?
Recently, for the first time in my life, I obtained a significant leg injury as Spring approached us– the first injury that has ever impacted my life within moments. I was rocking my athletic and competitive goals, and I had finally found my stride in the management of my depressive symptoms with movement, and I was deep into preparing for a rigorous fitness experience. Then, in less than 10 seconds, while sprinting, I heard and felt a pop that made me almost immediately fall to the ground in tears of pain. Now two months from my injury, I am sitting here with some clarity on the significant mental impact a physical injury can leave us with. Injuries are often as much a mental battle as they are physical ones. Hopefully these coping skills and reframing of beliefs can provide some support to you if you are on a healing journey as well.
We all have differing experiences with physical and emotional pain, and as athletes these often are personalized. I challenge you not to compare your story to anyone else’s. We’re not alone, as sports injuries are found to place individuals at increased risk of depression among other mental health impacts, so, let’s discuss coping!
Emotional Impact
Immediately after an injury, an accompanying sense of fear, uncertainty, anger, and anxiety surface. Whether it be about the severity of the injury, the potential financial cost or loss of income, the impact on life and performance, amongst other visceral reactions. It may feel easy to succumb to the vastness of these feelings. Recently, research has begun looking into a unique benefit in processing athletic injuries through a modality called Emotionally Focused Therapy. This is a modality that embraces emotions and the keen awareness of what they are telling you – challenging you to process rather than avoid. Other therapeutic modalities that are helpful with mental impacts of injury may include DBT and CBT. A combination of emotional regulation tools are below:
- Radical Self-Acceptance and Cognitive Reframing:
- The situation is awful, but you are in it. At that moment, more distress may come from attempting to answer all of the “what if’s”.
- Try reframing your negative thoughts of “Why did this happen now? What did I do to deserve this?”, “I worked so hard, I trained for this!” to “This is a terrible moment for me. I am scared and I am hurting. But I am going to use every person, connection, and doctor to help me overcome the biggest challenge so far”.
- Make a list of how you will take action on that reframing.
- Acknowledge what thoughts are catastrophizing.
- Opposite Action
- Self-doubt may rear its ugly head, you may question if you’ll ever be capable or strong like before, or whether you have the ability to push through the pain and defeat. Maybe you may doubt everything you once felt confident in.
- Suggestion: With the support of your doctor’s and physical therapist’s, ask them what they medically see as an appropriate “challenge” for the current you. Make it a new challenge. Is it rest? That is definitely a challenge when your mentality may usually be to push, overachieve, and use body signals as a driving force to improve performance rather than awareness of when to stop.
- Opposite action may be listening to your somatic cues.
- Every time you feel you succumb to an emotion, do the opposite of what the emotion says (e.g. I cannot get out of bed = get out of bed. Even if you stand at your window briefly in the sun).
- Example: I asked my medical team, on a discomfort scale of 0-10, how far I can safely challenge myself. I follow the subjective scale, but do not self-doubt myself into doing more. Challenge within limits! It may look different for the time being, which goes back to radical self-acceptance.
Body Image and Health Awareness
Please approach reading this topic with self-kindness, and if body image is an activating topic for you, I welcome you to skip over!
An injury can challenge the negative body image symptoms you’ve managed to reframe away from societal expectations and pressure, such as working to “feel strong” versus for physical appearance or numbers on a scale. However, with injury, you may not feel strong, more like it feels like double the effort to do the simplest things.
Suggestions:
- Think about the superhuman strength of your body to suffer an injury and you’re still able to endure crutches, carry the weight of a cast or a boot, carry your groceries with crutches, endure limitations, etc.
- Acknowledge that because of all the work you put towards feeling strong, capable, and empowered before is now simply being put to an unfortunate, but extremely real-life test of why movement is about mental strength, clarity, and functionality.
- Challenge any time your mind tries to tell you that recovery is ruining your body, body image, or how clothing fits. Appreciate your body is physically recovering from a trauma which means you benefit from rest, slowing down, and taking a challenging look into if aspects of your life have become more important than fully accepting yourself without any external factors. (Tip: Write those observations down and consider speaking with a therapist or trusted source about these insights, or, speak to your rehabbing team to seek validation in the process).
Isolation and Loneliness
If you’re single, don’t currently have a roommate or partner with you, are long distance from friends and family, etc., an injury may exacerbate isolation and sadness. It’s a struggle to grocery shop, commute, get yourself to and from appointments, be in the hospital– all alone. Distance may feel further, hugs may feel foreign, loneliness may be pervasive, and that is normal for humans. When we struggle, and even when we don’t, we desire interpersonal connection.
Suggestions
- Use an app that may easily connect you with loved ones when energy is low.
- Don’t be afraid to say “I need help” or “I am lonely”.
- Suggestions: In Buddhism, there are differences between loneliness and solitude. In solitude there are opportunities to grow spiritually, with your self-reflection, and a sense of choice. In loneliness there is craving for connection, and subjective experience based on emotions. This reframe may be helpful during trying experiences to find meaning in the emotional impact of loneliness.
Practice Gratitude
Doing adaptable workouts for those who live with disabilities often emotionally moved me, which made metta kindness and gratitude practice beneficial.
- Realize it’s hard, but temporary. Though there are struggles, there is the option to move through an injury and regain normalcy in time. If others can find fitness, accomplish life goals, and move with power alongside their life altering circumstances, it can be empowering for your journey, too.
- Suggestion: Research adaptive athletes and powerhouses for motivation (someone who helped me during this time was Logan Aldridge).
Though there are many other struggles one may feel during an injury, I hope these tools give some direction in reframing your reaction to injury, and empower you to see this as an opportunity to come back stronger than any planned journey ever could. Experiencing a setback in an area of your life that feels like it is your sole strength can truly be gutting, however, perhaps the moments of clarity along the way will highlight your courage, internal strength, cognitive strength, and deep passion and dedication to your goals and dreams. A quote I found strength in is what I leave you with to interpret what it means in your experience, and from one rehabbing athlete to another, patience is your friend.
“The purpose is you”.
-David Goggins