Sometimes Win, Sometimes Lose, Sometimes Injury

When pushing the limits of your capacity it’s not a certainty you’ll get injured, but it is likely. In this article I’ll discuss how to think about, manage and overcome injuries.

The preamble to this missive is that I am neither a doctor, physiotherapist, chiropractor or anyone with any formal training in the realms of injury diagnosis and/or management. I am merely a person with multiple decades of personal experience navigating various ailments and maladies. Please appreciate this context when considering the following.

Acute Vs Chronic

Injuries either occur gradually or suddenly. Acute injuries - muscle tears, bone breaks and joint dislocations - occur suddenly. The prelude may have accumulated over a longer timeline, but the appearance of these types of injuries is abrupt. There is not a lot that can be done (in that moment) to remedy the problem. That being the case, the one thing you can influence is your attitude.

You may righty have all sorts of adverse feelings that accompany actual physical discomfort, but is anything going to be made better by big feelings and overt demonstrations? When an abrupt injury occurs you are immediately thrust into the next phase, which is dealing with it. Notions of bad luck and lack of fairness neither help you in that moment or in dealing with reality.

Emotional self-management in the immediate aftermath of a sudden injury is not easy, but it is the most prudent way forward. Dealing with injury is a skill that comes from practice, but also from knowing what the correct course of action is. If you’ve spent any time with toddlers you’ll know that a scraped knee will often be accompanied by tears, snot, stilted breathing and occasionally whaling. The toddler is often experiencing pain, but most of their actions in these moments are performative. They feel harmed and want people to know it. You are not a toddler and acting like one does not help you.