Episode 223 | Rehab Realities vs. The Reel: The Social Media Illusion of ACL Recovery

What is up, team? I am diving into it today. I’m going to keep it super short because you guys deserve it because of a lot of long episodes recently. Let’s get to it. I talked with an ACLer recently, actually, today. And this episode and just this feeling of wanting to share this information was really important to me because this person is nine months out and he’s nowhere where he wants to be.And there are some limitations. He exhausted his PT months ago. He was basically doing the same stuff they were giving him, it wasn’t being progressed. The surgeon’s like, oh, well, you should just kind of ease back into sports, after a checkup being nine months out. 

It’s something that I’m starting to see just with conversations, especially recently, I don’t know if it’s just that timing, but people who are just really down with where they are. And of course, there probably is this notion of we’re helping people, and they probably didn’t necessarily get the service they needed to; therefore, they’re reaching out for help. I understand that. 

But being in this space, talking with people every single day, every single week, working with so many ACLers as a team, myself, and just knowing this landscape over the years. I’ve just been able to observe a lot. This person who’s not where he wants to be. One of the things he brought up, he was like, you know, I’ve been looking on YouTube and looking on Instagram and seeing people doing things that he was thinking he should be doing at four or five months, that he can’t even do right now, being nine months out. You could just hear it in his voice. You could tell like there’s frustration. I know many of you listening to this, you might not be nine months out, but you are some time away from this injury or surgery. It’s one of those things where you’re not where you want to be. 

We are our hardest critics, and there are so many things that just go into this thinking of where we want to be versus where we actually are. And we’re always trying to push ourselves and it’s a lot of this is coming back to what the narratives are around, like what does our surgeon communicate? What is the protocol? What does our physical therapist say? What does our coach say? What are the goals you have set? The timeline. There are so many influences, so many factors. And then there’s also the world—and that is what makes this even harder. There is just challenges with seeing the outside world and what they’re doing. Of course, we hear the headlines of professional athletes and college athletes and whatnot with this ACL injury or multiple injuries, and we see that stuff. We look into the recovery. But this one’s challenging because it’s so easy nowadays to be able to access people who have torn their ACL and what it looks like—Reddit, looking at Facebook groups, Instagram—is just a reel of people going through the process (if they document it). YouTube, if you type it in, you’ll see hundreds and hundreds of videos of the best exercises and recoveries and do it my way. You can see all this stuff. And the thing about this is that it’s challenging because with that is that everyone has their own story and their own journey. The thing with this athlete, and also just inevitably with social media especially, is that comparison sets in. It’s easy to see someone else, and you’re just like, oh, well they’re there. Here’s where I’m at. And no matter what, as much as we’re like, ah, run my own race, like do this thing, like this is my own journey, like it sets in. And don’t get me wrong, no one is immune to this. It can happen in many domains. It could be professionally, personally. It could be someone who has a boyfriend or girlfriend or in a marriage versus someone who doesn’t.

As much as you know, like, oh, I’ll find my person. It’s like, it still just kind of sucks; therefore, we’re not here to sugarcoat. That comparison doesn’t happen. It’s just more so, how can we make sure we practically tackle this and also understand, essentially, like what it is that social media and these other areas might end up providing in the sense of maybe some negative input. And this is something that I want to tread carefully and I want to be mindful of because I know that this is something that will just exist. But with that said, working with ACLers, I also want to share some input about this, especially because I see so many ACLers struggle because this is a long and hard process. There is no other way to say this. This is just difficult, y’all. And even through my ACLs, challenging recoveries, both different, and now going through this hip surgery and recovery. I find myself comparing. I’m seeing like, oh, well, where are some of these other people at being four weeks out, five weeks out, six weeks out? How am I doing? 

And so that’s where it can get really challenging with this process is that even I know better and the thing is like I find myself doing it. But then I kind of circle back around to knowing like, okay, I am in my own race and these are what I’m aiming for, and it’s looking at the gap and the gain. Not looking at what the gap is ahead of, all right, this is where I’m at, and I’m not even to this point yet. It’s more of I’ve really come a long way in the past four or five, six weeks, y’all. I’ve really made some huge strides in my own recovery. And so that’s one thing that is helpful in this process but more so, coming back around to social media. It’s not going to show the negatives as much as it’s going to show the positives. You need to understand this. We’re not going to get on social media, and there’s going to be tons of ACLers tearing their ACL and saying the process sucks, and that they’re sharing their personal experience.

Yeah, there are accounts out there. But when you look at social media, for the most part, there’s a lot of intention behind the way it’s designed. Sure, it’s like personal vlogs and stuff like that. And I’m including like YouTube, Instagram, all these things in here, because it’s just going to show the positives. It’s just the way that it is built. It’s the way that people want to show because it’s a sense of pride. I think we need to be careful with the way that we let social media into our lives as we’re rehabbing this process.

I just want you to be able to take that step back and look at this as you’re scrolling through Instagram, as you’re scrolling through Facebook, looking at YouTube and just seeing these people’s different journeys. I’m not going to say don’t do it because you’re probably going to do it anyway. You’re going to be like, oh, that’s a cool exercise. Or like, look at where they’re at. Whether it’s a friend, someone that you just met, or you’re just browsing through and just seeing where people are.There are different accounts at the ACL club. People are sharing different stuff, and it’s just highlights. I think it’s healthy to see this stuff, but I think it can also be unhealthy. But I think we need to understand the narrative that is typically pushed through social media and it’s typically more positive than negative.

It’s the highlights, it’s the testimonials, it’s the wins. Because it creates some positivity for those accounts who push them and that could be the ACLer, or it could be the clinician. Even auditing our own account, we’re not pointing out all the failures or all the things that all our athletes are failing with or having issues with. Yes, we want to highlight those things and I share these things on this podcast. It is something that we talk with our athletes with and even with people who are potentially joining on. I don’t want to sugarcoat anything. But with that said, if we’re trying to promote something that is going to try and pull people in from a healthy perspective, you are going to shy, if you will, towards all the things that are negative. You’re not going to put that stuff out there. You’re going to want to show the stuff that is going to be more positive in that light. So just know that. 

And the flip side to this is a community group where that can highlight more negative than positive. And the thing is with ACL, it’s interesting, especially with Facebook and Reddit groups. It’s something where I don’t blame any of these groups that exist, and I think it’s so healthy to communicate and see other people’s perspectives. But just know it’s n=1 for the most part, with a lot of these people. That’s going to be important to just not take what one person says about a graft type or their own journey, or this is the best thing. Because I promise you, Bertha, from Nevada, that is 35, and said her quad graft is the best thing in the world, and got back to skiing in like seven months, is going to be different for a lot of other people. Let’s just be careful with taking that information. But community groups and these forums, by nature, people are looking more so for problems they have and looking for solutions. Just know when you go into scenarios like that, that that’s going to highlight negatives more than positives. Sure, people come back and say like, hey keep with it. I’m here and keep moving forward. Or, they may come back and say like, hey, I’m a year out, two years out, and I’m doing this now. But the majority of the people don’t want to perseverate on this ACL process. Whenever they are done, they’re done. They’re putting this in the backseat and they’re moving forward. All those wins and highlights that you’re hoping to see in the Facebook groups or Reddit is less because people there are looking for answers to problems. You’re going to see that stuff and you’re probably going to see a lot more negativity. Know the medium you’re engaging with, what you’re likely to get within those. 

And then this is the big takeaway for today is: Know that you have to be careful what noise you’re letting in. Make sure you guard your gates. That’s what my wife tells me, in terms of like stuff that you let in, you got to guard your gates, you got to make sure like, am I letting this stuff in? Am I putting too much negative into my system of seeing people on social media for comparison, seeing people on this journey, maybe in these Facebook or Reddit groups, and just filter that and know like, all right, if  I see something, how does it make me feel?

And if it’s negative, I would encourage you to audit this. And if it’s on IG, mute their accounts. Control the amount of time you spend on there. Maybe you take a break from these groups to understand it’s not healthy to read all this stuff. That’s where we need to come back to, okay, what are the things that are true to run your own race, to focus on the gain over the gaps, as I’ve shared before, and just because someone had a successful, flawless process doesn’t mean that they didn’t encounter the bumps, and it’s also not your story. 

Social media doesn’t show everything. I want you guys to watch out and just be mindful of this. I promise you there are tons and tons and tons of ACLers and people in the trenches, not where they want to be more so than the people who are where they want to be. I promise you. It is tons and tons, like 10, 20, 30x more people are not where they want to be. There’s a multitude of reasons for that. But with that said, that’s where you have to be mindful of what you’re letting in and don’t let this rob you of the joy and the work you’ve put in, especially getting to this point and the accomplishments that you have. 

I hope that this is helpful, y’all. Just something that I wanted to share because of conversations and talking with this ACLer, but I hear this all the time and it was weighing on me, and so hopefully this is just even a friendly reminder for you. Filter what you are allowing in and to guard your gates with this, and just remember to run your own race. It’s so big in this process being so long, so up and down, and everyone’s situation is so different. Even 10 quad tendons that are six months out are all going to present differently because of their journey, their injury, the factors in their life. There’s so many things that are going toplay into your recovery. So that’s where having a good guide to keep you anchored and understand where you are and where you are heading is so key. 

Run your own race, guys. Guard your gates, protect the social media, and just know the pros and cons of each of what social media shows, and also what groups we’ll show too, to know what kind of natural information is going to be shown, so you can be more protective of what comes in and what you’re seeing. Hope this helps y’all. Until next time, this is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.