7 Steps for Mentally Healing from an Injury
I’ve had three stress fractures, all thanks to my first true love: running. The first time I got injured, I cried and cried and strapped on a massive black boot while my third metatarsal healed. The second time I got injured, I cried and cried and limped for three months with a broken pubic bone. And the third time I got injured—a re-injury of the same pubic bone—I quit running. I had to, I thought, if I was ever going to really heal.
But, as I know now, quitting wasn’t my only option—and it’s not yours either, no matter what type of workout keeps you sweaty and smiling. Instead, follow these steps to heal your tattered mental game.
Step 1: Understand Why You’re So Bummed
When you’re injured, you’re either forced to remain relatively sedentary (or even totally sedentary), or you're limited to a personalized range of cross-training and rehabilitation exercises (um, ick), either of which can profoundly affect your mental wellbeing. “If you’re all of a sudden injured and can’t work out every day, you’re experiencing a major dip in endorphins,” says Barbara Walker, PhD, a psychologist at the Center for Human Performance. According to Walker, with your brain producing less of these feel-good chemicals, the negative emotions surrounding your injury become harder to manage. Not to mention, if you usually work out with friends or a team, you’re also experiencing social separation. And maybe you didn’t even realize how much your regular exercise routine helped you clear your head and stave off anxiety. Plus, who could forget, your injury can definitely make it easier to gain weight. With all this, it's easy to understand why you might start to feel out of control.
According to Walker, these negative emotional changes can result in real depression. “Feeling down and irritable is normal,” she says, “but if you’re feeling hopeless, it’s time to talk to a professional.”
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Step 2: Tell Your Story
If you’re visibly injured—limping, in a cast, hobbling around on crutches, or using a wheelchair—people are going to ask what happened. They'll crinkle their brow and make that sad face and sometimes even, like, pet your back. Think about how you’re going to share your story, suggests Carrie Cheadle, a sport and exercise mental skills coach who wrote On Top of Your Game. That way, when the question comes up, you won’t re-traumatize yourself. She suggests taking pen to paper to contemplate what’s wrong, how or why it happened, and most importantly, the positive but. Like, “I strained my calf muscle pretty badly, but the break in training has me totally caught up at work.” There’s a reason for the fake it until you make it cliché—it works.
Step 3: Get the Support You Need
You should certainly get plenty of what Cheadle dubs informational support: doctor appointments and varying opinions on what’s hurting you physiologically. But you may not have enough of what she calls motivational support—the kind you get when you talk about the way you feel. In order to heal, Cheadle says you’ll need to recognize the symptoms of motivational support needs—fear that you’ll never overcome your injury, disappointment, hopelessness, and even the kind of depression that makes you want to stay in bed all day. Then, identify where you can get that support—maybe it's from friends who can give you a kick in the butt and an excuse to go out, or maybe it's from a therapist who will listen as you open up about how much this totally freakin' sucks. Then—here’s the kicker—ask for it.
Cheadle also suggests writing about the way you feel. “Processing emotions leads to a better understanding of our feelings,” she says, “and can even show us different perspectives on our injuries.”
Step 4: Stress Less
Stress is a major deal-breaker when it comes to the healing process. The more you stress, the harder it is to heal, because stress hormones interfere with the removal of damaged tissue and impair the movement of healing immune cells to the site of the injury. Not to mention, stress can cause sleep disturbances, further impairing your recovery. That’s why, according to both Walker and Cheadle, learning how to decrease stress through effective relaxation techniques is vital to healing physically and mentally—no matter your injury. One example: Try these five breathing exercises for less of a frazzled feeling and more focus.
Step 5: Readjust Your Goals
Reevaluating your objectives—whether you’re halfway through a marathon-training plan, aiming to lose 15 pounds, or simply striving to establish a consistent exercise routine—can alleviate pressure during your injury and pay off majorly in the mental department when you are able to train again. “You’re still an athlete,” says Cheadle, “but from the time of injury until you’re completely healed, the key is to be patient and realistic with yourself.” So rather than focusing on performance or results, Cheadle suggests that you make your first goal healing. By putting the bulk of your energy into recovery, you'll allow yourself to feel encouraged by progress, instead of discouraged by how far you’ve fallen from your previous goals. And bonus: All of this helps to continue counteracting that stress.
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Step 6: See the Opportunity
At this point in the healing process, you’re getting stronger, and something exciting might start happening: Your broken leg or dislocated shoulder or tendonitis in your Achilles may suddenly feel like an opportunity. “I see a lot of athletes come back both physically and mentally stronger,” says Cheadle. The trick is to use your bad break as a chance to work on another part of your performance, and to train your mind to look at what you can do instead of what you can’t. According to Cheadle, not only can this give you a feeling of purpose in your time away from your chosen sport or exercise, but it can seriously benefit you when you are ready to ease back into your previous routine. For example, you may be able to spend more time working on your stability, balance, and core than you previously did—all three of which can increase your overall athleticism and ward off future injuries. And even if your injury has you totally locked out of physical activity, Cheadle recommends becoming a student of your sport or activity by reading books, watching instructional videos or entertaining documentaries, and practicing mental strength exercises.
But pay attention—if devoting this much energy to your recovery process drums up negative emotions, it’s time to take an emotional break from your injury, says Cheadle. She recommends popping in a hilarious movie, calling your best friend, or baking a five-tier cake—whatever it takes to get your mind completely off the injury.
Step 7: Get Back on Your Feet
Returning to your fitness routine after a hiatus brought on by injury is exciting. But it's also challenging—OK, very challenging. At times, you may need to go back to previous steps in the healing process, such as reevaluating your goals or taking a day off to emotionally unwind, and that's totally normal, says Cheadle. She says it’s common to heal physically before you do emotionally. You’re going to need Beyoncé-esque confidence to know you can do it, saint-like patience to understand it may take a while, and superhero bravery to return to the activity that got you into this frustrating situation to begin with—not to mention, the faith that getting back to the point where you actually enjoy your workouts will be worth it. At times, you may find yourself reassessing what you’re doing and why it’s so important to you, says Cheadle. If that leads you to thoughts of quitting, it shouldn’t be because of your lingering emotional injury—it should be because you feel ready to try something new.
If I’ve learned anything throughout my many rides on the mental rollercoaster of physical injuries, it’s that knowing exactly what you crave emotionally isn’t easy. But being patient and taking steps back in the healing process when you need to can give you clarity. Writing about my experience, talking about anything other than my experience, and finding new ways to strengthen my body (hello, kettlebells!) all helped me ultimately heal. Follow these steps, and you can go from bruised, broken, or torn to better than ever.
This article originally appeared in Women's Health.
Social image courtesy of Zach Dischner/ Flickr.
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