What emotions do family members commonly experience after a spinal cord injury? - Robin Dorman, PsyD

Oftentimes, caregivers go through feelings of intense guilt, intense anger. Oftentimes, anger at the person who's been injured, which is a very scary feeling to have, and ones that most people don't like to really honor, and certainly don't like to admit, because it's not that person's fault. Or, actually sometimes maybe it is, maybe they did something reckless that caused an injury. Or, it could be a, you know, something that was a complete accident. Regardless, this person is now changing my life, and there's a lot of complex feelings that can go along with that. So, the range of emotions is huge—it's grief, it's loss, it's anger, it's guilt, it's hopefulness. Sometimes, even people can get to a sense of adventure—"How is this going to look?"—"What are the new things we can do?" And, I think it is important for caregivers to be able to own their feelings, and to be able to, at times, express those to the person who's going through the injury. Without being genuine in that way doesn't always feel quite as supportive to the person who's going through the injury, and doesn't feel as much like somebody's actually in it with them.