After a little while of being injured, my research and explorations have started to really shine light on so much more than I had initially realized regarding the effect of psychology upon injury recovery and injury proneness. Today, rather than offer up specific processes for overcoming a running injury (of which there will be plenty of stuff appearing here soon), I thought I’d give an overview of the kinds of psychological factors and issues that can contribute to injury, as well as hold back a speedy recovery.
Williams and Andersen (1998) highlighted that stress experienced in life, having appropriate coping skills, and having a good support network around you may well contribute to injuries experienced within sport.
The vast majority of the literature and research on this subject has tended to been conducted in team sports such as US football – which may well have inherent stress factors that do not occur in non-team sports, however, that is not really the point. The point is that the stress (stress in life has also been a main focus of these studies) experience in life in general can have an effect on the injury proneness of an individual.
A number of studies have shown and given empirical evidence to suggest that stress encountered in life and a number of other psychological and social factors have notable influence on the likelihood of sports injury occurring (Williams and Andersen, 1998; Kraus and Conroy, 1984).
Another study showed that a stress management programme given to a group of elite gymnasts helped with the reduction of injury Kerr and Goss, 1996), particularly interesting to me as runner; gymnasts are less of a team than the footballers mentioned previously.
Despite the research I have already mentioned, there is still a lack of good studies conducted in this area. From a person perspective, and although I am attempting to refute it as much as I possibly can, if I were to look objectively at my workload since the New Year, the effects of Fatherhood and the sometimes high demands of training for hours in preparation for a marathon (along with life’s other stressors that we all have) I may have been under some stress which may have contributed to my injury. I would like to add here, there are stress inducing physical effects of running – especially when someone runs as much as marathon runners do, there is a lot of cortisol produced by the body in particular.
Not all injury has some underlying psychological cause, of course not. I am open to the effects of certain psychological strains upon the physiology, but I am also interested in the use of our psychology to recover, rehabilitate and move forward.
For runners, preparing for a big event or a race of some kind can offer up new and different personal challenges which have a psychological effect; that is what I spend a lot of my professional hours working with. Pearson and Petitpas (1990) stated that sports often require those involved to undergo such challenges that can effect and influence them greatly. Examples of this are those who are not selected for teams or not qualified for events, those whose competitive careers come to an end, and of course, becoming injured!
Yes, injury itself is a stressor. For me, knowing that I miss out on a number of fabulous races that friends are going to be at, that got me more stressed! Brewer (2001) showed that 5-24% of athletes reported increased levels of distress following an injury. The research goes on to suggest that a range of behavioural, psychological and emotional skills can help to enhance the athletes response to injury. Therefore, the character and psychological make-up of an individual needs to be taken into account when organizing how we best deal with being injured to make sure we recover and prevent re-occurrence.
Evidence suggests that how we respond to injury emotionally and psychologically impacts and effects how we go about our physiological rehabilitation. Our recovery and rehabilitation suffers if we are not coping well emotionally and psychologically (Brewer, Van Raalte, Petitpas, & Sklar, 1995).
I have been looking at a couple of reviews of the best interventions and psychological treatments with the best evidence base for helping deal with injury prevention, though my main focus right now is on recovery and prevention. There are so many great things we can do and I have genuinely been spoilt for choice for deciding what is going to aid my recovery the best as I have flicked through a brilliant reviews of interventions by Cupal (1998).
My own plan is totally in place and underway. On the physiological side, I have a physio who treats Olympians and a massage professional who works with football teams, I am in good hands.
On the psychological side, in addition to my previous posts, I shall be sharing with you my plan in future entries here.
Keep your eyes peeled, there is some very cool stuff going to be on show here soon.
References:
Brewer, B. W. (2001). Psychology of sport injury rehabilitation. In R. N. Singer, H. A. Hausenblas, & C. M. Janelle (Eds), Handbook of research in sports psychology (2nd Edition, Pp. 787-809). New York: Wiley.
Brewer, B. W., Van Raalte, J. L., Cornelius, A. E., Petitpas, A. J., SKlar, J. H., Pohlman, M. H., Krushell, R. J., & Ditmar, T. D. (2000). Psychological factors, rehabilitation adherence, and rehabilitation outcome following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Rehabilitation Psychology, 45, 20-37.
Cupal, D. D. (1998). Psychological interventions in sport injury prevention and rehabilitations. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 10, 103-123.
Kerr, G., & Goss, J. (1996) The effects of a stress management program on injuries and stress levels. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 8, 109-117.
Kraus, J. F., & Conroy, C. (1984). Mortality and morbidity from injuries in sports and recreation. Annual Review of Public Health, 5, 163-192.
Pearson, R. E., & Petitpas, A. J. (1990). Transitions of athletes: pitfalls and prevention. Journal of counseling and development, 69, 7-10.
Williams, J. M., & Andersen, M. B. (1998). Psychosocial antecedents of sport injury: Review and critique of the stress and injury model. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology; 10, 5-25.
