Overview of a Chronic Injury
Have you ever hurt yourself and several months later realized that the pain is still there? Do you have a chronic injury, and should you be concerned?
Be assured that chronic injuries do not only happen to athletes and workers. We’ll address these ideas and more.
Let’s start by taking a quick look at a few terms to make sure we’re on the same page.
For better understanding we’ll talk briefly about acute, subacute, and chronic phases.
An acute injury is a new onset and lasts up to 4 days. A subacute injury has started healing and can last up to 4 weeks. A chronic injury is considered one that still bothers you more than 3 months after it happened.
So, what about the time in between subacute and chronic? This is the time for your body to continue healing and is a remodeling phase. It involves forming scar tissue and strengthening and can take several weeks to months.
You’ll possibly see these lengths written differently depending on the source. While the terms and phases may be similar, healing time for an injury is determined by the type and severity of the injury.
So, while there are specific terms to use as a guideline, each involvement can be different.
For example, a more involved trauma to tissue and tendons can take longer to heal than a fractured bone. Because of this, some injuries may not be considered chronic at exactly 3 months.
There’s more to consider than just timelines. If you are not getting relief from a prior injury or have never had it treated, you might need to see a doctor or specialist.
In this article, we’ll be discussing some specifics about chronic injury rather than only focus on the description of time.
In This Article
Why Chronic Injury Can Happen to Anyone
One important point to explain is that chronic injury does not only pertain to athletes or people injured on the job.
A chronic injury can be from a former injury and repetitive movements that are irritating to your body. It can also be caused from overuse of the same area(s) of your body without proper rest and recovery time. Chronic injuries can be caused from not preparing properly before a workout, job, or activity. It can even be from lack of endurance with movement or activities.
Another often overlooked point is that an injury can become a chronic condition if it was originally an untreated or unaddressed acute injury.
Ultimately, chronic injuries can lead to chronic pain. They can happen to anyone.
Examples of Chronic Injury
As a therapist, it is not uncommon for me to see multiple patients a week that have a chronic injury or pain complaint.
Some of the most frequently seen are back and shoulder injuries. In addition, I often treat patients with wrist and ankle injuries. This is not an inclusive list but are the most common.
By nature, certain parts of the body tend to require less effort with healing than others. When addressing correct posture, stretching, and strengthening, recovery can come more quickly depending on the area involved and the severity of the injury.
This also depends on your overall health.
The areas of the body listed above are the most common that we see patients for repeatedly. These areas are usual for chronic injury. It can occur from any of the reasons we’ve mentioned.
If you have a nagging pain, or area of your body that you can’t seem to get relief from, you know it can change your routine and outlook.
Let’s discuss some ideas that you can use to assess and address chronic injuries.
Take Time to Assess Your Daily Routine
It’s not uncommon with our busy lifestyles to ignore painful issues until we can’t overlook them any longer. Also, we’re quick to medicate to stifle annoying pain that distracts us from what we want or need to do. However, this can be detrimental in the long run.
A good start is to take the time to notice where you feel pain and see if you can decide specifically what is causing it. This is one way to listen to your body.
Whether you need to relay this information to a doctor or therapist, or you’re trying to cope on your own, it’s a vital step in understanding chronic issues.
Instead of trying to overlook or ignore pain or instability, test it out. Depending on location, try different movements to see what increases discomfort. Also, assess what actions may be difficult to perform. Understanding ergonomics is important in this realm.
If you’ve had a chronic injury reoccurring for some time, you likely already know the answers to these questions. If that’s the case, try to see it from a different perspective.
Instead of simply realizing what hurts or maybe even why, begin to focus on what you might be able to do differently for some relief.
Make Changes Where You See Problems
Viewing things in a different manner can be challenging if you’ve been in the habit of “giving in” to lingering pain or recurring injury.
It will likely take a larger overhaul to make changes depending on the length of time you’ve been dealing with the injury.
A method to personally address this situation is to find one area (at least) in which you can alter something from your typical action or reaction to the injury.
By attempting to have another focus, your perspective may change about the persistence of the issue. Use this as a launching pad to make other steps where you can create room for adjustments.
For example, if you have a bothersome, long-lasting ankle injury, don’t assume you have done all you can. Perhaps you tried stretching or strengthening at one point and didn’t achieve the results you wanted.
In the weeks since, you have taken pain medications, even over the counter, to alleviate the discomfort. Maybe you haven’t been able to get back to normal activity like you expected without pain.
Some first steps to making a change of your perspective in this situation could be to use mindfulness and relaxation for a less stressful view instead of reaching for medications. Try to continue exercising your ankle but do not skip stretching before and after. Instead of feeling insistent on working out each time you think about it, try going for a brisk walk. If possible, go outdoors and focus on nature or even walk with your pet.
Try thinking it through with a focus on your overall wellness not just with a focus on the injury and its limitations.
While this can be a personal approach, don’t overlook the need to see a professional at any point. They will have more specific resources to share that are related to the injury.
You can visit a specialist primarily for education and ideas to continue with your own treatment regimen if needed.
How Chronic Injuries are More than Just Physical
As we discussed the last example, you probably were able to recall an episode where you felt frustration that an injury wasn’t healing as you anticipated.
This is one of the most common occurrences I’ve witnessed over almost 30 years in therapy.
People are unrealistic about the length of time for healing and recovery from an injury or illness.
It isn’t purposeful. We view our bodies in a particular way. We often have a hard time seeing them otherwise even when we know there is an injury. This creates an unrealistic expectation about healing time.
After a new onset, it isn’t uncommon to hear patients talk about getting back to normal in a few days to a week no matter how invasive the situation is.
You only have one body. It’s difficult when it doesn’t work the way you expect. It’s even harder to realize that you may need to make changes to your physical health, especially long term.
This can become a huge distraction, and it’s not only because of the physical situation.
Having an injury, especially chronic, can greatly impact your holistic health.
The situation involves emotional, mental, and even social aspects. It can change your outlook, overall view of self, and your next steps.
Let’s take a closer look at these areas of health as related to chronic injury.
Mental
Because your mental view has a lot to do with overall health, the idea of facing a long-term injury recovery can be daunting.
It’s important to take steps to keep your thoughts from running to the “maybe if I had” ideas or the “what ifs”. Not only do we usually worry about the future, but we are our own worst critics when it comes to wondering if something could have been avoided.
It’s important to look forward with an optimistic view and try to keep from reviewing what you “could have done differently” regarding an injury.
We also quickly allow our thoughts to return again and again to specific situations. We readily replay them wondering how we arrived at this point. I’ve talked to many people who comment that “it doesn’t seem possible” that they are dealing with a specific situation. This is especially true with persistent injuries.
None of these thoughts help your circumstance. Often in conversation during treatment, I realize people need a cue to release from these cycles of self-deprivation.
It’s easier said than done but should be addressed.
We don’t realize that we’re being defeating to our own healing, but our thoughts can quickly lead to lingering doubt.
The power of mindset sets the stage for our health and wellness. A hint is that balance is key.
Emotional
Just as thoughts can lead to doubt, emotions can drive us to assume we “will never.” An emotional focus with chronic injury can create a spiraling mentality of defeat.
Emotional thinking enables a view that things are much worse than they really are and encourages multiple emotional outcomes.
Depression is a common effect of chronic injury and pain. Allowing emotion to determine our health is detrimental to wellness. This especially includes chronic situations.
Once we begin to view it through an emotional lens, more health difficulties can occur. In addition, it can lead to a continuous cycle of emotional difficulty and physical injury or pain.
It isn’t uncommon for emotions to be a driving force once you realize your body is not working as expected. Even if it isn’t continuous, it’s not unrealistic for us to have bouts of difficulty with acceptance especially when frustration occurs.
Coming up later we will look at ways to combat chronic injury from overtaking our wellness. For now—just as with your thoughts—begin to contemplate that balance is an important approach.
Social
Another area that can be affected by chronic injuries is your social situations.
When something changes your physical abilities, it’s not uncommon for it to also begin to affect your social circumstances.
Chronic issues may hinder your activity around other people and the desire to participate in social gatherings.
This can be from physical limitations that create difficulty with activity; however, it can also stem from either emotions or thoughts, or both.
Sometimes with injury we have extra down time. This often becomes a breeding ground for detrimental thinking or emotion.
Before you realize it, you’re convinced that you should be worried, are frustrated about your current situation, and even may decide it’s not worth the effort to spend time with others. This is especially true if a chronic injury has been persistent and creates limitations physically.
Unfortunately, for many, it becomes easier to stay put than attempt to leave home.
Ways to Deal with Chronic Injuries
We’ve looked at some of the effects of chronic injury or pain and will now address how to deal with these situations.
While everyone is different, and physical treatment should be considered for each person, there are some ideas that pertain to multiple situations. We will look at those here.
When Regular Medical Intervention Isn’t Enough
When we’re injured, a common response is to see the doctor and maybe also a therapist or other specialist who can treat the situation.
What people may not realize is that insurance is usually a deciding factor for number and type of treatments. Most points can only be justified for so long when reporting to insurance. (Check out other parameters from behind the scenes in healthcare.)
As mentioned earlier, we are often unrealistic about need for prolonged intervention. When this view exists, and treatment ceases before completed healing, it can be defeating.
Numerous patients have reported that they feel suddenly abandoned and that they needed more intervention. While it can be challenging, becoming your own advocate early on for treatment or an exercise/activity program is important. Don’t count on others to oversee every part of your journey.
In addition, even with continued treatment, there is often a gap between end of service and the impression that you have been healed. Our view versus the medical view of “healed” are usually very different. This is especially true with reimbursement for hospitals, rehabilitation, and outpatient treatment forever changing.
Looking at these situations in entirety, it may be beneficial to consider functional medicine as an alternate approach.
Functional medicine takes a holistic view. The focus is on the whole body and balance not just a particular situation. The goal is to find the authentic root of the problem.
Functional medicine approaches things form an entire body view and conventional medicine takes a symptoms-based and outward first focus.
One of my favorite points of functional medicine is that the practitioner and the patient work together to find an answer.
In medicine, it’s not uncommon to chase issues down numerous rabbit trails or for problems to be misdiagnosed and even missed entirely. Therefore, correspondence between practitioner and patient is vital.
Methods of Focus for Chronic Injury
The obvious points for better health that we are taught from childhood are to eat right, stay hydrated, get plenty of sleep, and exercise. These are no different when we have a chronic issue. In fact, they become even more important as a focus for healing the body physically.
Another addition to the healthy core four is to make sure you’re spending time each day stretching. This may be challenging. Don’t spend too much time contemplating the ins and outs. Action steps are more important in this realm. It’s better to do some than none.
Have a particular focus on the area where you have a chronic injury. Keep this up even over months to assure tightness, more soreness, or lack of motion doesn’t set in. If there is residual pain from the injury, it still needs attention.
We addressed how mental, emotional, and even social aspects can be affected by chronic injury.
Since each of these should be considered, a great technique to practice is natural mindfulness. This encourages still time with a focus outward on your surroundings (preferably outside or in nature). Use each of your senses to promote relaxation while performing slower breathing.
Another technique to attempt is changing your focal point. A chronic injury or pain can interrupt or distract other parts of your life. It tends to draw your focus to the issue at hand. This involves mental intention but can be beneficial to change your perspective. In turn, it can help your overall wellness.
Don’t Give Up!
Chronic injury can create a defeating mentality and negative outlook especially if you feel medical gaslighting is involved.
It may seem like an adjustment to a new normal, but don’t stop believing for healing. An optimistic perspective to gain pain relief and progress can be beneficial.
We have established that a holistic approach for wellness is important. This includes your physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual views.
Each of these is powerful and can promote greater wellness when in sync. We should strive to maintain balance in each area. This can assist in healing, better health, long-lasting wellness, and an overall greater outlook.
Since one area of your body cannot be fully isolated from another, it’s important to keep an optimistic focus. When you give up on one part, others may follow suit. Having a deficit in multiple areas can also hinder your physical healing.
Final Thoughts About Chronic Injuries
We’ve seen that chronic injuries can occur in anyone. They are not reserved for athletes, workers, or those that have higher levels of activity. We are all susceptible.
It’s important to assess your pain or injury on a regular basis. You want to establish an idea of what affects it in everyday life and what has been there long term.
We learned that a holistic view shows how all parts of the body work in conjunction and that each is important in healing. It is beneficial for these areas to stay in a state of balance. Otherwise, our health and wellness can be affected.
In addition, there are steps to take to create an optimistic outlook which can assist in tolerance and progression of a chronic injury. Mindfulness and focal changes are two beneficial methods.
With a balanced approach and better outlook, you can create success even with chronic injuries. It’s important to remember that you should never give up!