How Injuries Affect Athletes Mental Health

 How Injuries Affect Athletes Mental Health

By: Marco Rice

Injuries are the worst part of sports, someone works so hard for the sport that they love and boom, it all goes away in one play. I know this experience first hand and can vouch for the terrible effects it has on one's mental health. As I explained in my earlier blog post, I tore my ACL playing football, after playing sports my entire life. During the recovery process of the ACL injury, I was struggling mentally and wasn’t the same as before. Missing out on all the practices, gamedays, and being around my teammates everyday was brutal. But, I have learned a lot about myself through this process and plan to study the movement of the body in college. 

Athletes from all ages suffer from injuries and may be hurt mentally. Olympic skier Picabo Street suffered a brutal leg injury and had this to say about his recovery process, “I went all the way to rock bottom. I never thought I would ever experience anything like that in my life….feeling like a caged animal.” Street went into a dark place mentally during her injury and showed how athletes feel when they can’t play the sport they love. 

The worst part is, injuries are inevitable for athletes, according to the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, over 90% of athletes suffered injuries during their careers. Injuries are part of the game and most of the time there's nothing you can do about them. 

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But it’s not just during the recovery process that affects your mental health, it’s after you recover too. Coming back from an injury can be scary and you will always have the fear in the back of your head that you might reinjury it. In my personal experience, I came back nervous and ultimately never felt the sameas my pre-injury self, this was a huge blow to my confidence and pride.