Feeling pain due to an injury or chronic stress is more than just feeling it from physical aspect – it also prevents us from doing the things we love. This is more than just physical pain – now we’re also dealing with the mental and emotional repercussions of not having the freedom to do the things we love. When we can’t do the things we care about ON TOP of feeling physical pain... it could be a recipe for a mental spiral. For many of us, exercise IS our mental health. It’s our stress relief and it can be an escape.
This is a conversation we frequently navigate with clients who work out or do their chosen activity specifically for mental health purposes. This is something I have also personally gone through and understand quite well. This is honestly the deeper reason why having a physical injury sucks. Think about it.. if you sprain your wrist, but you can still play soccer, you still have that mental check box of being able to play. But if you tear your ACL and have to sit on the sideline – this becomes an entirely different narrative. If you go to the gym every day to relieve stress, get an endorphin rush, and get out of your busy head for an hour – what does that mean when you can’t go due to a back injury? If you belong to a running group that also doubles as your social circle, how do you feel if you have a foot injury and can’t join them every week?
Can you see mentally and emotionally how this would start to affect someone? An injury is not JUST an injury that exists in a vacuum. It affects how someone moves through the world on a daily basis.
So, what can we do about this?
Let me start by saying, getting people back to doing what they love is a huge priority. But what do we do in the short term to ensure we’re checking that “mental health” box?
Here are our top three ways to check the mental health box during injury:
ADD things to our mental health strategies. We’re always scared of “taking things out” during injury, but can we flip the script to ADDING tactics? Exercise/Movement is essentially taking care of yourself – whether physically or mentally. There are a billion other ways that we can take care of ourselves in these ways. It doesn’t always have to look like candles and a bathtub (although sometimes it does!) Here are some ideas:
Going on walks with a friend/family member
Reading/journaling
Listening to a podcast of someone who went through what you’re going through (Validation/Success Story)
Prioritizing time outdoors
Make a meal with a loved one
Find other ways to be physically active. This quite literally what we do best, and when I tell you there is ALWAYS a way, I mean it. Having some sort of pain or injury does not mean you should stop moving or “just rest until it’s better”. This 9 times out of 10 is likely the last thing you should do, both from a physical recovery standpoint AND a mental standpoint. There are always ways to modify movements and diversify what kind of movement approach you take. This is where most people freeze because they don’t want to be doing the wrong thing, or they do TOO MUCH. There is an art to this, and here’s where I’ll remind you a Doctor of Physical Therapy is a reaaally good resource here. We do this every single day.
Stay active in your fitness group/community. If your gym group makes up some of your social circle, this is especially important. When you stop going because of pain/injury, you also miss out on your social time, relationships, and social support. Don’t even get me started on the importance of sense of belonging and connection as we move through this life. That’s for another blog. This is part of the reason we work so hard to give people appropriate modifications – so they can stay IN the gym. You can still go to a class; you just have to respect your body and modify appropriately. That gym happy hour or post run happy hour/donuts and coffee? Yes, you should still go! I bet you’ll find more people are supportive of you than you think, and you’ll create a ripple effect of normalizing taking care of your body and modifying instead of constantly pushing through.
Physical pain/injuries can disrupt your life if you let them. It’s important to note it’s not “just an injury” – and that the effects can bleed into many areas of life if we let it snowball. That being said, there sure are a lot of ways we can help you to maintain your sense of physical and mental health, your routine, and your “normal”.
There’s always a way, and I think you’ll find leaning on trusted family, friends, and providers during this time will help more than you think.
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