I hurt my toenail a couple of weeks ago (a freak thing and if you want more details for some reason I can share), and then the toe got a little red and swollen. I’ve talked to the doctor and it’s a minor infection-I’m taking pills and soaking it, and we’ll see. Not hugely worried (I might lose the nail, but we’ll see), but the whole thing just has me depressed and lethargic. Why is that? I just want the bloody thing to get better, and on the whole, it’s not a huge thing and doesn’t impair my life in any real way.
Sometime hearing about someone who had it worse than you can make you feel better. One time I jammed my big toe on a hike. It was sore for a couple days and then the nail became opaque after a couple more days. Eventually the nail made a hollow sound when tapped. Finally, when I moved a pile of towels with my foot, the nail snagged and lifted up like the hood of a car.
Also, I have had gout. Ask anyone who has had gout how painful it is - totally debilitating - like unrelenting, excruciating, crawling-on-all-fours pain. A friend of mine’s mother had gout, and said it was worse than childbirth.
There’s your mistake. You should act like it’s a big thing that does impair your life. I suggest wearing one regular shoe and one “I have to protect my toe” type shoe that clearly don’t match each other. Then when people ask you how bad it is, you can smile bravely and say, “It’ll be okay. . .in time.”
I wouldn’t say so… I tore my patellar tendon about nine years ago, and I don’t recall being depressed about it- if anything, i had a sort of challenged feeling about it- sort of a “I’ll be damned if I’ll let this get the better of me” kind of feeling.
Getting severe cellulitis from an infected mosquito bite and COVID at the same time didn’t even make me depressed. I absolutely felt like shit for sure, but I wasn’t ever depressed.
Who’s asking?! You talking to me? You talking to ME?!
Um, a vote here for depressed and grumpy when injured or afflicted, sometimes. Singing “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag” doesn’t really cut it in the middle of a gout attack. Or allergies. Or sore toe. I find the smaller stuff more of a downer than the big stuff. Be good to yourself.
I’ve never particularly heard of people becoming depressed through a relatively minor injury.
I have peripheral involvement with people who have suffered workplace or other injuries that put them out of work for a period of time and from what I have read, the prevailing view amongst health professionals is that they are at substantial risk of psychological effects. This is one of the reasons they favour a return to productivity as soon as possible – people can become almost “institutionalised” and develop depression, agoraphobia, social anxiety etc
It doesn’t help that I’m diabetic and have some sad family history regarding foot injuries and diabetes. But there’s not much I can do about that (the concern, not diabetes. THAT I can control). Yeah, if other people can deal with their much bigger crises and concerns, I can do this one.
I think injuries should make us depressed! I take “depression” to be more about lack of motivation and enthusiasm than about sadness. We should take things easy when we’re injured, to let it heal.
I had a bad fall from my horse last fall and spent about a month not being able to do things like put my socks on by myself. I tried to be patient but eventually I just got really cranky. I was only depressed because I was missing all the rest of the wonderful autumn riding weather.
I think in general it is going to be better to frame the question as “do you let being injured make you depressed?” Because if your regular brain chemicals are okay, you can make choices to find ways to cheerful yourself up.
That seems like good advice. Getting up and moving around (or getting stuff done, anyway) does seem to make a difference. It’s just frustrating to look down at the damned thing not getting any better after doing everything I’m supposed to do and accomplishing tasks and such. And with the end of the school year, I’m going to have more free time, which is a double-edged sword of course.
I have a torn rotator cuff (possibly two, actually) and a couple of bulging discs in my back. When I get a twinge, or outright pain, I sometimes feel like “well, this is something I’ll be living with for the rest of my life” and that can cause a wave of depression. Other stuff that passes, like a bad cold, or an ingrown toenail, can make me feel in the moment like it’ll never get better. I know it’s unrealistic, though in these days of Long COVID, it’s less and less so.
“Minor injuries”, like “discomfort” from medical interventions, are things that happen to other people.
Stress resulting from health problems can cause breakthrough of depression symptoms, as I have occasion to know. People have differing thresholds of what causes depression in such circumstances.
Getting up and moving around is generally good advice for the depressed, though it runs counter to what the brain wants in that situation - which is for the body to pull the covers over its head and enter dormancy.
Now you’re talking. With a family history, I’d be anxious and worried about the toe injury too.
FWIW, I injured my big toe with the move I made two months ago. I really need to see the doc about it as I think I should lose the nail, blood underneath, etc., so the new nail can grow in properly. Still haven’t done it. Why? Well, I’m depressed and have trouble completing any task right now. Perhaps you were already depressed and the nail injury just focused your attention on the depression.
All that said, hang in there. If I can, you can. Or something like that.
People are pretty complicated. Some people get upset by things some would consider trivial. Sone people are affected by almost anything. Some people don’t get upset after considerable setbacks. Often when people are upset, the real issue is not necessarily what they say or what seems most apparent. Some people get depressed quickly and get over it. Some people take longer, and some people never fully do. Things like pain level, loss of function and length of time, supports, philosophy, temperament, values, genetics, family modelling, personal meaning and ways to remedy and mitigate things are just of a few of the things that might go into this.
