[81alum]

Shin splits can be very, very disheartening and for some people there is nothing that can be done to overcome them short of rest.  My daughter battled them through four years of high school track.  The more she practiced the worse they would get, until she nearly quit.  We are a society that thinks there is always a fix for things, but this is one ailment that can't be fixed with a pill or a knife.  Probably half of her track friends tried all kinds of precautions and treatments--trips to the trainer or the podiatrist--and while sometimes they helped a little, often they did nothing at all. 

Trying to play your sport while battling serious shin splints is an exercise in total frustration.  Determination, grit, and hard work are all punished.  The harder you try to play through it, the worse your performance becomes and the greater the pain.  At least with an ACL you have a calendar you can try to speed up by actively doing your exercises.  Not so much with a chronic condition like shin splints.

I can easily see, from my own daughter's experience, how shin splints can be very demoralizing to a competitor.  It is not difficult to imagine how this could exacerbate or lead to depression.  I sympathize.  I also admire Hayley's Mom for talking about it.  We need to destigmatize mental health conditions in general, and we especially need to do so among athletes, whose competitive world can be very unforgiving of perceived weaknesses.

[81alum]

Shin splits can be very, very disheartening and for some people there is nothing that can be done to overcome them short of rest.  My daughter battled them through four years of high school track.  The more she practiced the worse they would get, until she nearly quit.  We are a society that thinks there is always a fix for things, but this is one ailment that can't be fixed with a pill or a knife.  Probably half of her track friends tried all kinds of precautions and treatments--trips to the trainer or the podiatrist--and while sometimes they helped a little, often they did nothing at all. 

Trying to play your sport while battling serious shin splints is an exercise in total frustration.  Determination, grit, and hard work are all punished.  The harder you try to play through it, the worse your performance becomes and the greater the pain.  At least with an ACL you have a calendar you can try to speed up by actively doing your exercises.  Not so much with a chronic condition like shin splints.

I can easily see, from my own daughter's experience, how shin splints can be very demoralizing to a competitor.  It is not difficult to imagine how this could exacerbate or lead to depression.  I sympathize.  I also admire Hayley's Mom for talking about it.  We need to destigmatize mental health conditions in general, and we especially need to do so among athletes, whose competitive world can be very unforgiving of perceived weaknesses.