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Injury and mental health


Injuries are an unavoidable part of sport participation. While there are ways to reduce your risk and some injuries result from accidents, almost every athlete will experience some type of injury during an athletic career. While some injuries can be managed with just a little disruption to training (I call these niggles), some injuries cause substantial physical and mental stress. 

It's normal to feel frustrated, annoyed and sad when you experience an injury. Depending on the severity of the injury, your emotions may change on a daily basis. Every person has his/her own emotional reaction to an injury as well as how to best emotionally cope with a setback. It should be noted that injury process doesn't just include the time immediately after an injury until the injury is healed but it also includes the rehab process and the time needed to return to optimal fitness.

Because sport/exercise/training is often used as a healthy coping mechanism to manage stress, to boost self-esteem, to optimize health and body composition and to increase self-confidence, athletes may struggle to find healthy coping behaviors during an injury. The psychological response to an injury may trigger the following:
  1. Disordered Eating - When an athlete is no longer exercising regularly, it's an assumed response to want to restrict calories and carbs in order to avoid weight gain. While a small change in eating habits may be necessary, feeling like you don't deserve to eat or feeling intense fear of weight gain may trigger disordered eating. For some individuals, when self-identity is threatened, the incidence of disordered eating or an eating disorder may increase.
  2. Depression - Sport increases self confidence. Great feelings come from completing a workout, relieving stress through exercise and socializing with others. When you can no longer do what you love to do, you may question your own self-worth. Feelings of anxiety and stress due to a re-injury or lack of confidence in your return to training may cause extreme worry. There's also the emotional exhaustion that comes from spending an excessive amount of time and energy on the should of, could have and if scenarios.
  3. Isolation - You may feel like everyone can train but you. Seeing people at the gym or outside may cause anxiety, sadness and a sense of alienation. When you feel like you no longer fit in with your community or friends, this may cause isolation and a loss of interest and withdrawal from healthy behaviors or proper recovery/rehab. 

There's no right time for an injury. If you suffer from an injury, allow yourself to mourn. You don't have to be "strong" by hiding your feelings. Your emotions are an important part of the healing process. You must feel to heal. While it's difficult to do, try to stay positive and keep everything in perspective. Use the success stories of others to give you hope. Maintain a positive outlook.
While rehab and therapy may not be as fun as training, don't cut corners or waste time doing nothing. Work as hard with your injury recovery rehab as you did with your training. Don't be all or nothing. If your injury allows you to still continue some part of your training or a different mode of activity, do it. While  you may not want to do it because it's just not as fun as what you did before, do what you can to get back to where you want to be. While you may feel upset and maybe even embarrassed, don't isolate yourself from others. Seek the support of people who can lift you up. Be patient - injuries don't follow a defined time-line. Rushing the process may result in a re-injury or a delay in healing. Sometimes the quickest way to heal an injury is to go slow.

Lastly, seek help. Use the time away from sport to work on your nutrition, sleep habits, personal relationships and/or mental health. Seeking out the help of a professional, therapist or counselor is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength and determination to overcome a setback.