#15: Dealing with Anxiety When Returning to Activity After Injury

If you're struggling with anxiety as you try to return to your physical activities after an injury (be it social, sports, or even occupational activities), you're not alone. Research shows that upwards of half of all individuals who suffer an orthopaedic injury deal with some form of anxiety as they return to being physically active.

So what do we do when our body is good to go again but our brain is still struggling? In this episode, I go over the problem of treating the body but neglecting the brain after physical injury, why it can be such a common issue, and general insight towards how to overcome the troubling thoughts that may hold us back from fully engaging or participating in the activities we wish to get back into.

As always, it comes down to a multidisciplinary approach whereby we draw from the help of others while also working through action steps we can take on our own to help put ourselves in a mentally better position to overcome what holds us back.

If you want to know more, then hit that play button!

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 - Intro

7:35 - The problem to solve & the big takeaway

13:47 - Defining “anxiety”

14:35 - Post-injury anxiety statistics

20:55 - If post-injury anxiety goes unchecked

27:50 - Pain memory circuits

30:40 - Tracking progress with outcome measures

34:23 - Common psychosocial interventions you can do

39:06 - Systematic desensitization

42:39 - A story from my past (my shoulder injury)

48:25 - Learning to interpret pain

50:23 - Practical progressions for getting back on track

52:08 - What if your activity involves others?

55:19 - If you’re struggling (personal insight)

56:43 - Sharing your story with others

58:20 - Critical takeaways from this episode

59:26 - Thank you (and a small request)

ARTICLES REFERENCED WITHIN THIS EPISODE:

1. Breazeale, S., Conley, S., Gaiser, E., & Redeker, N. S. (2021). Anxiety symptoms after orthopedic injury: a systematic review. Journal of Trauma Nursing| JTN, 28(1), 46-55.

2. Muscatelli, S., Spurr, H., O'Hara, N. N., O'Hara, L. M., Sprague, S. A., & Slobogean, G. P. (2017). Prevalence of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder after acute orthopaedic trauma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of orthopaedic trauma, 31(1), 47-55.

3. Hsu, C. J., Meierbachtol, A., George, S. Z., & Chmielewski, T. L. (2017). Fear of reinjury in athletes: implications for rehabilitation. Sports health, 9(2), 162-167.