Injury depression

Ricky420

Ricky420

Member
I recentally broke my fibula, nothing crazy but having it happen during Christmas break bummed me out a lot. It's got me feeling a bit depressed that I'm so limited in what I can do. Any of you guys experience this or have any advice?
 
I broke both my wrists early last season. The first few days were really rough mentally but after that I actually had fun with it. It was funny to find ridiculous ways to do normal things. The only part that sucked was that I couldn't drive but luckily I hang out at my house most of the time.
 
I blew my knee mid season 2015. Sucked so hard. But yeah, read a few good books, watch a few good movies and get into those rehab exercises as soon as you can! Most people that ski/skate/play a lot of sport have had a pretty nasty injury at some point, guess that's just part of it all. G luck man.
 
I've experienced some depression personally, but have been involved in the lives of others who have had some really remarkably extreme cases. I've learned a lot about it in the last couple years and definitely have some advice for you.

I'm not writing the stuff below to correct you or argue or anything, just stating it because many people haven't heard it, and it's needed in order to frame the conversation.

1. Depression is not "feeling sad", although when you are depressed, you might feel sad sometimes. Depression is physical ailment; something is happening in your brain that is making you feel depressed.

2. Depression is a symptom of injury, similar to being in pain, it is believed that it's a natural thing that will help people to heal. The idea is that, evolutionarily speaking, if you have no motivation to do shit while you're healing, you'll heal faster.

Now, when people are depressed for no reason, it means that there's something going a little wacky in their brain. Injury related depression is similar, but you have a much greater chance of bouncing back easily than people who experience depression as a standalone illness. Therefore, the advice i'll give is a little different than I would give someone who's experiencing depression on its own.

- Use your willpower to overpower the bad feelings, if you are able. Stay intentionally positive. Do things you like. Even if you have to fake it. When your body lets you feel normal again, it's important that you haven't done anything to bring yourself down otherwise. Don't develop any bad habits - things that offer temporary little mental rewards like spending a ton of time on facebook or with video games. Pick up a book! Or try something new. Watch drawing tutorials on youtube or something.

-Don't drink alcohol. Try to take it easy on the pain meds, too... a little bit of suffering isn't bad for you. But make sure you take enough to sleep at night. Try not to sleep all day long.

- Try not to make any big decisions about life while you're down, it is much harder to do and you might not agree with your future self.

- EAT WELL. "You are what you eat" isn't a useless idiom, it's real. Don't eat like shit - don't eat heavily processed foods, junk foods, sugars, candy, snacks. It could prolong the depression symptoms, and hurt your ability to heal. Stay away from carbs, you don't really need them. Generally you will get enough carbs without eating a lot of breads, crackers, etc. as you find carbs in carrots, peas, potatoes etc. Eat leafy, colorful greens, and a reasonable amount of protein (red meat, chicken, eggs) of good quality. Snack on carrots. Do some research about what sort of foods help you to heal after traumatic / bone injuries. If you drink milk, buy good milk.

This stuff will take a lot of discipline, but for real... trust me. This stuff might seem trivial but a little bit of alcohol in a depressed brain, or eating shitty for a couple days can REALLY mess you up, more than you would think.

Depression sucks, but remember - depression related illness will usually go away.
 
I have ACL surgery January 19th after tearing it the 4th day of the season in December. Meanwhile Utah has been getting fucking hammered with snow, feet every night. Not skiing is not fun, but there are more seasons to come, and pretty much everyone I know has been through the same thing before, if not multiple times. It sucks, but it's not the end of the world.
 
Focus on rehab and getting stronger for when you come back. The down time definitely sucks - I'm about to be out for 2 months after getting injections for my patellar tendinitis and I've had plenty of other injuries throughout the years. There is no silver lining to being injured, but you have to make the best of it and stay positive.

Other than rehab, read books, watch Netflix, play video games, distract yourself from your own situation. You'll heal up and be ready to ski again soon enough.

The worst thing you can do is not rehab - some days it might not feel like the PT is worth it, but it will be.
 
13771783:EmperorKuzco said:
You are depressed because you have an injury? Seems kind of stupid
Click to expand...

Read my post. It's very common, it's believed to be a natural defense mechanism to encourage healing.

Additionally, depression is not the same thing as "really sad" or "sad for a long time" and it's not something that you can just "get over". It's a physiological condition that manifests itself in your emotions, your perception of the world, your motivation, appetite, and energy levels among other things.
 
13771817:TWoods said:
Read my post. It's very common, it's believed to be a natural defense mechanism to encourage healing.

Additionally, depression is not the same thing as "really sad" or "sad for a long time" and it's not something that you can just "get over". It's a physiological condition that manifests itself in your emotions, your perception of the world, your motivation, appetite, and energy levels among other things.[/QUOTE

Considering if any injury like that happened 200 years ago or basically any time before 1950 and modern medicine you would be pretty damn grateful to even be alive and not dead. Suck it up, rehab and you will recover. People are getting too damn soft nowadays
Click to expand...
 
Ive broken my fibula twice this year skiing and I have had depression both times, infact the only 2 times in my life. Most recently after moving out to Colorado and thinking my season was over was quite destructive to my mental health. Fibulas arent all that bad, you should recover pretty quick however your mentality is key. Just always remeber that It could be allot worse, and you WILL recover and be able to ski again. Although it might seem devastating now, it is just a small set-back. Do allot of PT and put allot of work back into skiing, that will help allot in terms of mentality and you wont regret it. there will be times when you surely will be depressed and have bad feelings, but you just half to push through it like i did and think about the skiing you will be able to do when you recover, aswell as any other good thoughts. Also, not sure if this is allowed on the forum but lets just say there is a certain green substance that can help allot with your mentality in this situation aswell as expedite your bone recovery tho i think most skiers are pretty familiar.

You will recover and everything will be ok. It is a bummer that you broke your fib but it is not the end of the world. Just think about the positives and you will make it through, times will be tough but everything will work out. If you need any help getting through diffucult times in recovery just message me, been through this all to many times. Feel better man, hope for a swift recovery.
 
Also, for me looking at snow reports was the shittiest thing and just made me super depressed so i guess dont do that.
 
New years eve/day 2011/12 I did in my shoulder. Had a few surgeries. Season was off to a slow start. Had like 6 days on snow. Was having one of my best days on rails and got rekt.

Came back as a lifty for party of the season so I could get outside and only skied closing weekend 4/20 ish at mount snow for the whole season. I was pretty fucking depressed. I think 07/08 I was around 120 on the east coast and then I logged like 7 a few years later.

Stoke level was low.

Right now my car is injured and that's killing my stoked. I've gotten 3 days since I've been back in the northern hem. Honestly thought I was driving west at any point so haven't bother but 3 weeks goes by fast. Now I have no job, a car uncertain, and no idea what the fuck I'm doing,

Physically injured? Not other than my back from 2 months ago, but in other ways yes.
 
Coming off a 2 year NS hiatus for this. I was in the same boat, with knee stuff, due to not caring about PT the first two times I got injured.

Right away I sold all my ski stuff to buy a t2i camera and tried to get into film, but mannn I was terrible and never enjoyed it much.

It was my 3rd run through the same knee injury so I went hard with PT and decided to actually try in school (engineering). I was kind of removed from the snow industry entirely, but I worked hard at it with this in mind: when I come back, I'll be 25 and super healthy, and I'll have the best skiing of my life from then on.

Afterwards- this season has been my best ever! I'm careful, which makes me land everything easier. I really think through my tricks. I'm not crazy good but I have so much more fun than I did before the injury, when I basically just screwed around.

The depression part of it lasted maybe a couple weeks? I got pretty stoked when I forced myself into preparing for the next season.
 
I'm in the same boat as you with a broken fibula since December 14th and a ski trip planned for Feb 14th!!!

I know how you feel but my advice is stay positive (easier said than done I know) because at the end of the day your going to struggle to get worse, so get on that rehab and set yourself a goal to work towards!!
 
13771759:danbrown said:
I have ACL surgery January 19th after tearing it the 4th day of the season in December. Meanwhile Utah has been getting fucking hammered with snow, feet every night. Not skiing is not fun, but there are more seasons to come, and pretty much everyone I know has been through the same thing before, if not multiple times. It sucks, but it's not the end of the world.
Click to expand...

me last season sucked....
 
13771861:EmperorKuzco said:
Read my post. It's very common, it's believed to be a natural defense mechanism to encourage healing.

Additionally, depression is not the same thing as "really sad" or "sad for a long time" and it's not something that you can just "get over". It's a physiological condition that manifests itself in your emotions, your perception of the world, your motivation, appetite, and energy levels among other things.[/QUOTE

Considering if any injury like that happened 200 years ago or basically any time before 1950 and modern medicine you would be pretty damn grateful to even be alive and not dead. Suck it up, rehab and you will recover. People are getting too damn soft nowadays
Click to expand...

You either intentionally being an asshole, or you're real dumb and need to learn how to read.

Depression IS NOT Sadness, it's not "feelings" that you can change. It's a PHYSICAL ISSUE that has to do with your brain chemistry. How depression makes you feel is the symptom, not the condition itself.

Telling people to "suck it up" when the have depression is like telling someone to "just stop having cancer" or "walk off your broken leg". It doesn't work that way because it's a disease. Besides being stupid, it's really rude.

He didn't say anything about being "ungrateful". I'm sure he's very grateful he's not dead. It has nothing to do with being soft, it has to do with your brain fucking with you outside of your ability to control it.

**This post was edited on Jan 5th 2017 at 4:10:32pm
 
dude i got the exact same injury day after skiing. just stay positive and do everything u can to get back on skis for a few days before the season ends.
 
I don't know if I'd classify what I had as "depression" in the clinical sense, but yea, I'd say pretty down in the dumps. I'd say I can relate to what you're experiencing.

I tore my ACL at the end of March last season, right in the good meaty part of spring where it's time to send it hard and everybody is having a good time. Obviously it wasn't as bad as doing something in the beginning winter but it still was right at the cusp of that really nice spring-early summer when it's perfect for hikes, beach time, paddle boarding, all that good stuff I'm so down for. So not only could I not keep sending it hard in the spring but man, watching my whole summer fly away wasn't my favorite thing either.

I felt like at first I pitied myself, I was trying to pretend it wasn't a problem but then I realized I was kinda not ok... So I let myself be bummed but I made sure I didn't fall so far that I couldn't get back up. I let myself be sad, acknowledged it and let it go. It's a shitty situation any time you're injured but in my opinion it's important to accept the sadness, acknowledge that yes, this is not good, and let it go slowly, trying not let it swallow you up. And it's ok to let yourself feel bad about the situation, morn the loss of this season but focus on keeping yourself healthy and in the most positive mindset you can considering the situation. If you know you can help it, try to prevent yourself from dwelling on it, accept it and recognize it's just for now. That being said, if you feel like you can't help it, you feel like it is out of control, that would be the time to call your GP and get a name of someone to talk to about depression.

Once I could drive again (I have a manual car and I had surgery on my left leg so I was stuck for a hot minute) and the physical therapy was starting and I could walk, get around better, it was easier. I was pretty busy and not really thinking about things very much. I think the hardest section of the recovery was when I was strong enough to walk, but not strong enough to go out and do what I wanted to do. I was so used to just being able to do whatever and it wasn't a big deal but I felt stuck in my own body. I think the whole thing was an experience that made me more grateful for my ability to recover and appreciate what my body does for me. That's where I found my ability to remove that dampening sadness, in creating art, music, working on rebuilding my body. You'll be more active once physical therapy starts and everything. I suggest finding some creative outlets for yourself, maybe order yourself a guitar or ukulele and just feel the music.

Take care of yourself physically and mentally, good luck and feel better soon!

I agree with TWoods's suggestions, I just don't want to quote such a long post in addition to what I've added.
 
13772560:SkierBetch said:
I don't know if I'd classify what I had as "depression" in the clinical sense, but yea, I'd say pretty down in the dumps. I'd say I can relate to what you're experiencing.

I tore my ACL at the end of March last season, right in the good meaty part of spring where it's time to send it hard and everybody is having a good time. Obviously it wasn't as bad as doing something in the beginning winter but it still was right at the cusp of that really nice spring-early summer when it's perfect for hikes, beach time, paddle boarding, all that good stuff I'm so down for. So not only could I not keep sending it hard in the spring but man, watching my whole summer fly away wasn't my favorite thing either.

I felt like at first I pitied myself, I was trying to pretend it wasn't a problem but then I realized I was kinda not ok... So I let myself be bummed but I made sure I didn't fall so far that I couldn't get back up. I let myself be sad, acknowledged it and let it go. It's a shitty situation any time you're injured but in my opinion it's important to accept the sadness, acknowledge that yes, this is not good, and let it go slowly, trying not let it swallow you up. And it's ok to let yourself feel bad about the situation, morn the loss of this season but focus on keeping yourself healthy and in the most positive mindset you can considering the situation. If you know you can help it, try to prevent yourself from dwelling on it, accept it and recognize it's just for now. That being said, if you feel like you can't help it, you feel like it is out of control, that would be the time to call your GP and get a name of someone to talk to about depression.

Once I could drive again (I have a manual car and I had surgery on my left leg so I was stuck for a hot minute) and the physical therapy was starting and I could walk, get around better, it was easier. I was pretty busy and not really thinking about things very much. I think the hardest section of the recovery was when I was strong enough to walk, but not strong enough to go out and do what I wanted to do. I was so used to just being able to do whatever and it wasn't a big deal but I felt stuck in my own body. I think the whole thing was an experience that made me more grateful for my ability to recover and appreciate what my body does for me. That's where I found my ability to remove that dampening sadness, in creating art, music, working on rebuilding my body. You'll be more active once physical therapy starts and everything. I suggest finding some creative outlets for yourself, maybe order yourself a guitar or ukulele and just feel the music.

Take care of yourself physically and mentally, good luck and feel better soon!

I agree with TWoods's suggestions, I just don't want to quote such a long post in addition to what I've added.
Click to expand...

This is solid advise OP your body will heal its not the end of the world pick up some new hobbies keep your mind busy an enjoy those pain meds hahaha heal fast homie
 
I just broke my collarbone right after the holidays and it sucks. Doc said I'm out for 2-3 months which is pretty much my entire season. I haven't really accepted the fact that I'm not going g to be able to ski until next season and I'm trying to put that off for as long as possible. I only got to ski a couple of times this season and it sucks because I am going to have to wait like 10 months until I can ski again. Hopefully I heal fast enough to get some spring skiing in, or go to good over the summer.
 
13772359:TWoods said:
You either intentionally being an asshole, or you're real dumb and need to learn how to read.

Depression IS NOT Sadness, it's not "feelings" that you can change. It's a PHYSICAL ISSUE that has to do with your brain chemistry. How depression makes you feel is the symptom, not the condition itself.

Telling people to "suck it up" when the have depression is like telling someone to "just stop having cancer" or "walk off your broken leg". It doesn't work that way because it's a disease. Besides being stupid, it's really rude.

He didn't say anything about being "ungrateful". I'm sure he's very grateful he's not dead. It has nothing to do with being soft, it has to do with your brain fucking with you outside of your ability to control it.

**This post was edited on Jan 5th 2017 at 4:10:32pm
Click to expand...

Honestly bro I didnt want to get into this. Sorry if I offend you with my brash opinions I truly mean no disrespect and can understand where youre coming from it's just something I personally have never experienced and thus have no idea what it does to you. Please dont tell me you think alcoholism and drug addiction is the same thing as cancer as well thats where I draw the line.
 
13772960:EmperorKuzco said:
Honestly bro I didnt want to get into this. Sorry if I offend you with my brash opinions I truly mean no disrespect and can understand where youre coming from it's just something I personally have never experienced and thus have no idea what it does to you. Please dont tell me you think alcoholism and drug addiction is the same thing as cancer as well thats where I draw the line.
Click to expand...

Thank you for taking the time to think about your post and about what I wrote!

Opinions are fine; but we should always try to have our opinions be based on as solid an understanding of the issues at hand as possible.

I flamed you a little there just to get your attention... Because I wanted you to understand what I was saying and internalize it. It's VERY LIKELY that at some point in your life you or someone you know will experience depression, real depression, not just sadness or despair.

Depression is not cancer, depression is LIKE cancer in that it's not something that you can control, it's a physical reality that creates symptoms you can feel, and it's not something that can be healed by "manning up". Depression is not an emotion any more than Cancer or broken bones are an emotion.

It's important that everyone understands just a little about depression as an illness so that if they experience it, they are able to help themselves as much as they are able, and likewise, if someone we know experiences it, we are able to help them out.
 
13772560:SkierBetch said:
Once I could drive again (I have a manual car and I had surgery on my left leg so I was stuck for a hot minute)
Click to expand...

How long did that take? I drive stick and I have ACL surgery on my left knee next Thursday.
 
13774540:danbrown said:
How long did that take? I drive stick and I have ACL surgery on my left knee next Thursday.
Click to expand...

It really depends on your doctor's orders first and foremost. Then of course you have to be at the point where you're no longer on pain medication anywhere from 8-12hrs prior to driving.

For me I tried to get off of the pain meds during the day as soon as possible, maybe 2.5 - 3 weeks?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top