You have been injured. Again, and you don’t know if you can come back from this one.

Take heart. You can. Millions do. Whether your injury is related to an incident dealing with running, football, gymnastics, construction, or the service industry – and whether you are a professional or an amateur – someone has been here before you and come back. Though not always in the same line of work.

The Cause(s) of Most Injuries

There are three main causes behind most sports injuries, and these apply about equally to pros and amateurs. They also apply to skilled labor and trades. The first is failing to prepare.

This is true if you play pro ball, and equally true if you’re just going for a bike ride or a jog around the lake. Cars have been designed to go from zero to sixty. Muscles have not. The fluids that lubricate muscles, tendons, and sinews have to be stimulated to begin their work, and the best stimulation is gentle flexing and stretching followed by increasingly strenuous activity. Whether you are throwing a ball or climbing a transmission-line pole, you mind and body have to be ready.

Secondary (but no less important) causes include bad technique and too much initial exertion. These, in turn, can be exacerbated by failing to drink enough fluids, and failing to cool down sufficiently to allow muscles to "burn off" lactic acid and replace it with oxygen and nutrients. You have to know the best way to do your job, the amount of exertion needed to do it, and the safest way to get it done.

When All Else Fails

You have strengthened your core: you are flexible and strong. You know the right way to do things, on the soccer field or on the parallel bars. You work your way up, staying hydrated, and cool down when you are finished. And still you have incurred an injury.

If the injury is a result of your work – whether you’re a runner, soccer player, or a lineman – there is that initial fear that you will never participate again in doing what you love.

So what will you do if you can’t do that? Will workmen’s compensation come through for you, or do you need a lawyer? Will you spend the rest of your life on disability, or – worse yet – at the mercy of charity?

Don’t go there. That is defeatist thinking, and thoughts are things. Instead, focus on how much work, and time, it will take to get a fourth of the way back. Then halfway. Then all the way, and never allow yourself to see that final destination, because in early days it will seem as distant as the moon.

Injuries in America

Each day in the United States, almost 13,000 individuals, or 1.06 percent of full-time workers, are injured. Most of the injuries involve sprains, strains, or overexertion. Firefighters, police, paramedics, and other service workers are most at risk. Interestingly, construction workers rank No. 5, after maintenance, repair, and installation crews. In 2015, the greatest risk of injury and death was from poisoning, with prescription medications (notably opoid painkillers) leading the field. Fifteen percent of professional sports players incurred injuries in 2015. Four percent of those were knee injuries. Less than one percent were head injuries like concussions.

Facing the Music

If you have been injured at work and wonder what comes next, take heart. Thanks to 21st century physical therapy techniques and medicines, the odds of your coming back as good as new – or at least good enough to do your job – are excellent.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t be depressed: coming back can be a long, slow road. It also doesn’t mean that you won’t be in pain at times, or that your work duties won’t be limited by your injury until you make a full recovery.

On average, almost half of all injured workers who returned to work within one month stayed on the job and did not need to take more time off. More important, even though symptoms of depression sometimes persisted through the first six months (and even through the entire first year), those workers who received both physical and mental health therapy recovered more completely and required fewer process adaptations or exceptions than those who did not. Accepting therapy doesn’t make you weak. It makes you stronger.

Speaking of Music

One worker therapy that has received high marks is music. Where practicable, workers who were allowed to listen to music on the job tended to recover their emotional equilibrium much more quickly than those who did not.

For those who don’t enjoy music, other emotionally uplifting activities – a favorite hobby over the lunch hour, a collection of pictures, even a pet – helped restore a sense of wellbeing. This is, no doubt, why so many firms now allow employees to bring small pets to work. Where that isn’t practical, a half hour a day spent looking at images (scenery, families, adorable children, and cute animals) is equally valuable.