How do family relationships change after a young person is injured? - Nancy Rosenberg, PsyD

If it’s a young adult, or an adolescent person, who is injured, that person, prior to the injury, was going through that independence-dependence conflict.  They were still tied to their families, but trying like heck to be their own guy or gal.  And that struggle, that psychological struggle, remains because the psychology of the person is still the same after the injury.  And yet, they’re finding themselves physically so very dependent on their families again.  This is also a time for families when they were thinking, “Wow, this is really great.  This child of mine had been on their own, doing more things without me.”  And now, “Wow, my child is back at home with me, and I’m not sure how long, and I’m not sure how that’s going to be.”