The Importance of Support Through a Long Term Injury
By Sydney Proper | IG: @syd_squid_25
Behind every smiling athlete is a story. Even when athletes have a smile on their face, it does not always mean that they are ok. I myself started to become one of those athletes as I went through my journey with a torn ACL and the rehabilitation. A person can never truly understand exactly how a person feels during a long term injury unless they go through one themselves. When I tore my ACL I could never imagine the mental state that went along with the physical injury, sometimes causing sad thoughts and feelings that I never thought I would have. It is impossible for many to understand the mental struggle someone feels while trying to get back to being the person they were before experiencing an injury. During the recovery process there have been many times where I experienced difficult emotions and dark thoughts. Most of the time those thoughts came with the struggles in my rehabilitation such as scar tissue development and not being exactly where I wanted to be in my recovery process. While experiencing those mental struggles it made me truly realize the importance of peer support.
Throughout my recovery my biggest supporters have been my parents. Even in times of struggles they reassured me that I would be okay and be back and even better than before. They also made me keep my eye on the big picture of playing lacrosse in college and trying to focus on the small improvements I was making. Another big support that helped me cope through my injury was one of my club teammates from lacrosse. She had been experiencing very similar setbacks with her recovery. Having her there as a support and being able to talk to someone going through the same experience was very helpful. While I was in my recovery process a girl on my high school lacrosse team tore her ACL during a game. When I found out she had officially torn her ACL I reassured her that I would be there throughout her whole recovery process. She was very thankful to have the support and is now back on the lacrosse field crushing it like she never tore her ACL.
As I am reaching a year and half in physical therapy, the motivation that keeps me aspiring to continue reaching my goal to get cleared is support. I still struggle to feel connected to my high school team and wish things were different my senior year. Each month I get cleared to participate in more drills, yet I still can’t play on gameday and sometimes that can be isolating. Continued support and growing strength will help me get through it, but it is still hard. If a person you know is experiencing a long term injury, make sure to reach out and try to do something to make them feel connected to your team. Your encouragement is what helps someone persist even in times of doubt.
