If you break a bone they put it in a splint, if you cut yourself you bandage it up, I broke my back and I now get around using a wheelchair…… So all of these injuries are quite visible.
Recently I met someone who had hurt his back at work, he had a soft tissue injury and was on light duties and doing rehab. I spoke to him for a while and he said that whilst his back was healing he has recently been suffering from depression.
He believes that it was because of his back injury!….. For a month after he hurt his back he had to take it easy, he couldn’t mow his lawns he had to ask his wife to do things that he would normally do and worst of all he could not lift and play with his two and a half year old daughter!
His father in law said a couple of things to him that upset him and he told me that he had a breakdown!
Now in some ways I’m lucky, I hate the fact that I use a wheelchair, it pisses me off, I get angry, I get sad, I get frustrated…… But I don’t think I’ve ever been depressed!
It’s hard for me to talk much about depression as I have not experienced it, but I’ve spoken to people that have and I’ve seen how it has impacted their lives.
I’m not a counselor, and I’m not sure if an injury can bring on depression? But for me that would be a double whammy!….. First you get hurt and then you have to try to deal with the other ways it changes your life!
