How Injuries Impact Athletes' Mental Health

 By Jason De Leon

Stonehill sophomore Christian Rojas, a football cornerback for the Stonehill football team, suffered an ACL injury his junior year of high school. He needed immediate surgery, and his recovery process took over nine months.

“I would say I was severely impacted because during that process, you’re bedridden. You’re used to being independent and now you’re dependent on other people for everything and that really affected me mentally,” he said.

 

According to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) study titled “Athlete’s Mental Health and Quality of Life After Sports Injuries,” athletes have approximately four million athletic related injuries per year. The psychological stress that athletes endure after an injury can hinder rehabilitation and prolong their recovery time. Common symptoms include anxiety, anger, and depression.

 

Stonehill sophomore Nathan Monteiro, a star forward for the Stonehill soccer team, suffered a foot injury and needed immediate surgery to repair the damage his freshman year. Monteiro went through a small slump and bounced back, but he’s seen others who were injured spiral mentally.

“A lot of people that I've seen get injured lose their confidence and their speed. They are too scared to fully push themselves again because they don’t want to go through that trauma like getting surgery and not being able to do anything for almost a year,” he said.

 

Stonehill junior Rickenson Guerrier was a promising wide receiver who was moving his way up on the roster depth chart. Then he suffered a career ending ACL tear in his sophomore year playing football athletics.

"Right after it happened, those were probably some of the darks times I've ever had. My life was football. I put everything into football. The only reason I came to this school was because of football,” he said.

It isn’t just physical injuries that need attention.

Stonehill Psychology professor Jennifer Cooper focuses more on the cognitive effect that injuries can have on athletes.

“When I think about the mental effect of sports injuries, I’m thinking about concussions. But I also know that in general for any injuries a person has, the more optimistic your outlook, the better your healing is going to proceed,” she said. Cooper said the effect can vary. “I’d say the impact depends on tons of individual differences because if an injury taking you out of a team, that is very much a part of your support community and your identity, that is going to have an effect very different that if you’re sidelined for a month and you know you’re able to go back,” she said.