Injury: A Mind/Body & Spirit Relationship? - A Need

A Psychological Response to Physical Injury
by: Dr. Raymond J. Petras, BE, MA, Ph.D
Sports Performance & Injury Mgmt Specialist
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There is a need to develop the mind, body and spirit because they constitute the whole person. They cannot be separated. This article addresses psychological response to physical injury. When there is a physical injury there is always a psychological response. Unfortunately, the psychological response is rarely treated even though the use of psychological techniques can safely reduce pain and speed healing and have the athlete back on the field more quickly than just treating the physical injury.

Although the spirit is an equal in a balanced mind, body and spirit approach, it will not be covered in this article.

It’s Olympic Time
Are you following the Olympic action? Injuries are always a huge concern but even more for the Olympics. Years of work gone due to an injury. Injuries cut short the dream of Paul and his brother Morgan Hamm (USA Men’s Gymnastics) as well as others. What if there was a way to reduce these injuries and/or a way to safely speed the healing so that the athletes could return to play at a high level of performance, would you use it?

There is a way and it is mostly neglected. Early research and empirical trials are showing athletes returning to competition in 1/3 to 1/2 the time usually attributed to an injury if they use mind/body techniques in conjunction with standard, conventional training methods.

It’s too late for prospective Olympians this time, but it is not too late for your athletes. Read on.

Early Athletes Used Mind/Body
Native Americans arguably were (are) some of the most physically fit individuals in recorded history. They believed in tapping into their own intuitive energy, laughter, good nutrition, exercise and mental medicine (work). Why shouldn’t we?

Olympian and Native American, Jim Thorpe† is one example. He won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon during the 1912 Olympic Games in Antwerp, Belgium. When King Gustav V presented Thorpe with his gold medals, he grabbed Thorpe’s hand and uttered, “Sir you are the greatest athlete in the world!” Will Michael Phelps (USA swimming) wrestle that title away in this Olympics?

Jim Thorpe was a professional football and baseball player and an Olympic track and field athlete. He was on the 1911 and 1912 All-American football teams, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (1951), a Charter Enshrinee in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1963), named America's Greatest Football Player of the half-century (1950), AP’s Most Outstanding Athlete of the First Half of the 20th Century (1950), ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Century (2001) and the first president of what is now the National Football League.

He also had a “believe it or not moment” that involves Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Can you guess what it might be? See end of article.*

Now, back to Injury: A Mind/Body & Spirit Relationship?
When physical injury occurs and pain ensues, there is always a psychological response. Green, (et.al, in E. Peper, Mind/Body Integration: Essential Readings in Biofeedback, 1979) postulated that: “Every change in the physiological state is accompanied by an appropriate change in the mental-emotional state, conscious or unconscious, and conversely, every change in the mental-emotional state, conscious or unconscious, is accompanied by an appropriate change in the physiological state (p. 132).”

When injured, Weise & Weiss, in an article titled wrote, “Psychological Rehabilitation and Physical Injury: Implications for the Sportsmedicine Team,” The Sport Psychologist (1987) wrote: “an athlete passes through four mental-emotional stages in response to the injury. The first stage is ‘what happened?’ Injury is a stressor. The athlete ‘cognitively appraises’ the injury and his ability to deal with it. Whether this appraisal is positive or negative influences the next stage in the stress process. The second stage or phase commonly involves denial of the injury, anger and a bargaining behavior. In the third stage, the athlete deals with how he feels, his ‘emotional response’ to what has happened. The athlete tends to have an intense preoccupation with the injury and may experience insomnia, fatigue, crying, troubled dreams, guilt and depression. Nideffer, in his book, The Ethics and Practice of Applied Sport Psychology (1980), states that this stage is very important because it could have direct impact physically via the actual pain, which can be increased or be made to linger because of muscle contractions at the sight of the injury. Finally, what ‘behavioral consequences’ will the athlete exhibit? In other words, what will the athlete do about what has happened? For it is this behavior that ultimately determines if he will recover successfully from the injury. If the athlete handles this stage well, he begins to reorganize and express renewed interest in returning to previously important activities.”

So, addressing psychological issues can speed healing. See the following example.

“Mental Stuff” Safely Speeds Healing of Physical Injuries
On Friday, before game day, two fullbacks and a middle linebacker were hurt and not scheduled to suit up for the game.

All three had seen the trainer and team physician, and were under the medical team’s care. One fullback had a partial shoulder a/c separation and the other fullback had a partial shoulder separation and meniscus damage. The middle linebacker was limping badly from a grade 2-ankle sprain he had suffered 1-1/2 weeks previously.

None of the athletes were scheduled to suit-up. After the trainer, physician, parents and athletes agreed, the players were introduced to mental techniques for pain reduction by the team’s “mental” coach. After the sessions, which lasted approximately 20 minutes, the athletes reported to the trainer and team physician for evaluation. All three athletes, after being examined by the trainer and team physician, played and performed very well, in the game the following day. None of the three players ever experienced further pain or discomfort from their injuries.

A brief outline of some of the steps used to bring about these amazing results are listed below.

Mental Pain Management Technique (Complete details beyond the scope of this article)

If you follow these instructions, you may experience some-to-complete relief of your pain. (Make sure that you work with your team physicians and trainers):

1. Note any range-of-motion problem and rate the pain level on a scale 0-100.
(Zero being no pain and 100 being unbearable pain.)
2. Sit on a chair, put your hands on your thighs and close your eyes.
3. Take a deep breath, then another and notice how your body feels.
4. Imagine a dial, like a clock, scale 0-100. Put the pointer on the number where the pain is now.
5. Move the pointer down to zero or as close to zero as possible.
6. If some pain remains, that is okay. It is the body’s way of saying more healing is needed.
7. Athlete returns to team physician and/or trainer with any new information.

Using only the mental technique above (modified), athletes have experienced improved strength, increase range of motion and reduction in pain. Again, be sure to work closely with your team physician and trainer.

Why Do People Get Sick?
Dr. Carl Hammerschlag, M.D., Ph.D., Indian Health Services, wrote in The Dancing Healer (1988):

“Why people get sick and why they get well is tied inextricably to recognition of the connections among mind, body and spirit. We are coming to realize in our own times that the Native American concept of health as a harmonious balance among those elements, and healing as a ritual to restore that balance, actually works.”

In August of 1964, Norman Cousins reported in Anatomy of an Illness As Perceived by the Patient, that he had contracted serious collagen illness (connective tissue) with a 1 in 500 chance for full recovery. By using his strong will to live, some vitamin C and a well-developed systematic plan, which included regular periods of laughter, he was able to heal his body and make a complete recovery.

Conclusions:
1. The mind and the body are interlinked. What affects one affects the other.
2. When physically injured, the athlete appears to go through a four stage mental-emotional response. But, it does not have to take too long.
3. The proper mental-emotional response to an injury can facilitate healing.

Question or Idea for an Article
Have an idea for an article or you would like more information on a particular subject?
Contact me, drpetras@reliefforyou.com with your request.

Next Month
Before we move to an article on how to use -- Mental Techniques to Speed Injury Recovery, I’ll show you, in next month’s article, how “fear” enters into the healing and performance equation. So look for next month’s article: Performance, Pain & Fear.

Dr. Raymond J. Petras is an elite sports performance & injury management specialist, international lecturer, author, professor, researcher and world cup team doctor. His work encompasses most sports from young amateur athletes, to Olympians and professionals, as well as members of the business and the medical communities. He is available for individual and team consultation, and may be reached at 1.888.447.1429; by email at drpetras@reliefforyou.com More information is available on his website www.reliefforyou.com

*Believe it or not - Thorpe once hit 3 home runs into 3 different states in the same game. During a semi-pro baseball game in a ballpark on the Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas border, he hit his first homer over the left field wall with the ball landing in Oklahoma; his second homer over the right field wall into Arkansas and his third homer of the game was an inside-the-park home run in centerfield, which was in Texas!

†Information on Jim Thorpe from CMG Solutions -- www.cmgww.com/sports/thorpe/index.php

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