Why is independence important for someone with a spinal cord injury? - Anne Bryden, OT

I don’t think anybody really likes to ask for help, especially for the things that you used to do so easily, perhaps. Spinal cord injury is such a difficult thing because people lose independence, privacy; they lose everything in a split second. So every little bit of independence you get back—every time you don’t have to ask somebody to get the milk out for you, or every time that you can actually prepare your own snack, or reach something out of a drawer—is critical because you feel like you’re not a burden on somebody else.