I have never met an athlete who was okay with hearing the words, "You're injured and out for the season," not one. But the sad truth is that there are many athletes who hear those words every day and that is what they go through. The ten stages of grief mark their process of recovery.
Stage 1: Avoidance
About 90 percent of the time, athletes know the exact moment where something went wrong, where something felt different and if it was not a broken bone then they took that moment and pushed it right out of their minds. What you will find about the competitive ones is that no matter what, they do not want to be taken out of the game.
Stage 2: Pain
That's it, just pain. Whether it's pushing through the pain, feeling the pain, or being so overwhelmed that all you know is pain, there comes a point where you cannot avoid the pain. No matter how much icy hot you throw onto yourself or how many ice baths you take, there is just a time where the pain is no longer easy to bear.
Stage 3: Diagnosis
The stage that every athlete dreads. It is the moment of truth. The time that you discover if you are out of the game or out of the season, or if you are just a pansy with a low pain-tolerance. All of the above are pretty devastating.
Stage 4: Denial
After being diagnosed with an injury, whether it is a torn ACL or a concussion, knowing you are not going to be able to play the sport that you love for however long you are given can be heartbreaking. So there will be instances where us athletes will still try to push our bodies past its limits. We will plead with our coaches, our parents and our athletic trainers to let us back in; to wait until the end of the season. We could be denied over and over again and still go back.
Stage 5: Submission
The moment where most athletes surrender and let the injury take its course. With that being said, it is never an easy ride. For many athletes, their sport is a part of them; a defining piece. Losing the ability to play the sport that they love can mess anyone up mentally and well, you are already messed up physically. This stage can also be called "giving up."
Stage 6: Recovery
Recovery road can be a long and treacherous journey. Your body is no longer your body. You cannot do everything you are used to doing. Sometimes even going from sitting to standing is difficult. From surgery, to physical therapy, to even learning how to walk again, injuries vary through many different cases. All difficult in their own ways. All physically and emotionally draining. When you are in the moment, it seems like the end of the road will never come.
Stage 7: A Mental and Physical Impasse
After days, weeks, maybe even months of physical therapy, looking for hope is one of the most difficult things to do. What is physical therapy? It's repetition. The same workouts over and over and over and over again. Of course the doctors are very helpful and encouraging, but having to learn how to do basic movements that you have known all your life can be frustrating. On top of that, the longer recovery takes, the longer you are away from your sport. Fighting for hope, pushing your body pasts new limits that your injury has drawn and struggling to see the end is just the middle of it all.
Stage 8: A New Hope
Other than being a cheesy title in the Stars Wars saga, it is also a cheesy name for this stage. At one point, everything just clicks. Your body finally starts responding the way it used to. Your strength is coming back and so is your hope. Hope that you really will play again, hope that everything will be okay, and hope that your body will finally be yours again.
Stage 9: Caution
The second to last stage and in my opinion, the most difficult one. As every athlete journeys back into their own sports, whether it be football, volleyball or even just working out, there is always a voice in the back of their head saying, "Don't push it too hard." Ignore it. Always keep caution of what you throw your body into, but never let it make you lose the love for your game.
Stage 10: Becoming Yourself Again
The long, long road to recovery has finally reached its treacherous end and it could not feel any better. One of the best feelings is hearing your physical therapist and your surgeon tell you that after all of these hard months, you are finally cleared to do anything that you want with your newly fixed body part. You can finally be an athlete again.
