What is the single most important factor in making a good adjustment to life in a wheelchair after a spinal cord injury?

Hands down they say the thing that helps them the most is the support of family and friends that helps them get though this long-term. Just being there for them, helping them through the good times and the bad. It’s a tough, tough thing to adjust to and when you ask folks, they say, “Oh I could never adjust to something like this, I never could handle something like this.” Or, “My loved one could never handle something like this.” And I think it’s one of those situations you just don’t know until you get into it. But you get into it and somehow you figure it out, and it’s not pretty how you do it. A lot of times it’s trial-and-error but people help you through it.

Have you been resilient in the past? Have you had a situation where you had to come back from something, or had to readjust or change gears whether it’s loss of a parent, whatever—have you exhibited resilience? And the next one is problem-solving skills. If you don’t have the problem-solving skills to face whatever barriers are out there, you have to be creative. You have to learn how to develop creativity, problem-solving skills. And the next is it’s really helpful if you have a sense of humor.

Attitude and willingness to accept the fact that your life has changed, but your life hasn’t ended. There’s still so much more that you can continue to do, you just have to maybe do it a little differently than you used to.