Sports injuries can feel like looking up a narrow and winding staircase.
Pepperdine athletes who have walked through the struggle of recovery said they are asking themselves a similar question and advocating for the mental aspects of injury that accompany the physical.
Hannah Bruner, sophomore cross country and track athlete said her initial hurdle surrounding her injury was learning who she was outside of her sport.
“It’s easy to have a lot of your identity be connected to your sport,” Bruner said. “It causes you to question — ‘Who am I? What am I?'”
After the hike of recovery, athletes look back and reflect on some of the beautiful qualities injury recovery has to offer.
Progress Over Perfection
On an individual level, injured athletes are at risk for a variety of mental health issues, including clinical anxiety, disordered eating, depression and suicidal ideation according to the National Library of Medicine.
Pepperdine Athletic Counselor Devin Love-Winston said the mental health declinations for injured athletes are rooted in the idea that an injury can strip identity away for athletes.
“The mental health challenges stem from the sudden loss of their athletic role and their certainty about the future in sports performance,” Love-Winston said.
Senior shortstop Justin Rubin has dealt with this concept. Rubin said he was on track to get drafted to play professionally until his shoulder dislocated.
“I was on track before the injury — so I was obviously devastated,” Rubin said.
Bruner injured her iliotibial band last year, and she knew the pain was persistent. Bruner said her mental health took a toll from the process as well.
“My mental health had ups and downs,” Bruner said. “But it can definitely be hard to be injured.”
When the progression of recovery has twists and turns, Bruner said it takes a toll on your mental health because it seems like it will never get better.
“My injury was just so nagging, and it wouldn’t go away,” Bruner said. “I felt like I was doing all the things I could possibly do, and nothing was changing.”
Isolation
Athletes compete together to achieve a common goal; when injured athletes can’t contribute to reaching that goal with their teammates, Bruner said that’s when the feelings of isolation start to set in.
Love-Winston said that when injuries start to isolate athletes from their teams, it is crucial to encourage them to stay involved.
“They work with their coaches to stay involved with their team and their activities just to stay connected,” Love-Winston said. “Because we recognize that when someone is injured, isolation can be a thing.”
Bruner said her injury forced her to miss out on common team experiences — and she felt the isolation sink in.
“I missed the indoor track season as well, which was really hard because I started feeling disconnected from my team,” Bruner said.
Rubin said a lot of the time, injuries are spontaneous and can cause a negative mindset.
“A lot of times, injuries are out of your control,” Rubin said. “So there’s definitely a period of ‘Why did this happen to me?'”
The Bright Side of Recovery
Bruner said injuries may be trials, but the strength it builds can be reflected on and appreciated.
Bruner said her first run back after her injury reminded her of the love she had for running and how grateful she was to be back at it.
Rubin said that after recovering from injury, one starts to grasp a more meaningful concept and keeps moving forward.
“You get a grasp on the bigger picture and that everything happens for a reason,” Rubin said.
Bruner said she attempted to see her injury as an opportunity to rest, a rare luxury for most collegiate athletes.
“Injury is a unique opportunity to just take a moment and breathe and find some sanity and find some moments where you get to enjoy something you don’t normally get to,” Bruner said.
Injury recovery may have its ups and downs, but Rubin said it’s beneficial to try and think positively.
“There was definitely a period of feeling sorry for myself,” Rubin said. “But eventually, you snap out of it and try to put a positive spin on it.”
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Contact Haylie Ross via email: haylie.ross@pepperdine.edu
