When you suffer from a spinal cord injury (SCI), your entire life changes. In a blink of an eye, your mobility, independence, and future become uncertain. In addition to the physical process of recovery, you also have a million other worries weighing on your mind. This weight can become so overwhelming that nearly 37 percent of SCI victims suffer from severe depression. This is why it’s extremely important to try to decrease the external concerns caused by your SCI.
An easy way to help lessen the stress is to focus on individual problems, instead of obsessively worrying about all of them at once. A good starting point is to place each concern under one of three categories: physical, mental, and monetary.
- Physical. Worries pertaining to limitations caused by the injury (e.g., mobility and independence)
- Mental. How the injury affects how you feel about yourself or about the future
- Monetary. Rehabilitation, hospital, and medication costs, and lost wages because of your temporary or enduing disability
Once you have categorized your worries, you can then rate how—or even if—they’re important enough for you to think about. For instance, is worrying about a $50 ice pack more important than you being able to take an extra step in therapy? Of course not.
Worrying about things you can’t change causes anxieties that you don’t deserve. Organize your worries and fears can help you strive toward the positives. Don’t obsess about not being able to walk. Instead, plan for the day that you’ll take a few steps around Turtle Park and strive toward the day you’ll hike part of the Appalachian Trail.
Contact a Fairafax Spinal Cord Injury Lawyer
For further information on spinal cord injuries, as well as advice on how to help pay for your treatments, please contact the Virginia SCI lawyers at Shevlin Smith. Call us today at 703-721-4233 for a free consultation.