Health and medical information

As you put the puzzle pieces of your life together, you will adjust to your new situation, adapt to changing circumstances, and reconcile with reality. Adjustment is a balancing of all areas of life so as to bring about a more satisfactory situation. It includes the element of adaptation, the process of making modifications to deal with changing circumstances. Reconciliation is the recognition of the underlying consistency or congruity in your life, even when it has been disrupted by spinal cord injury.

However, before you can adjust, adapt, and reconcile to life with spinal cord injury, you need to work through old, unresolved issues. In this way you can enjoy the present and better plan for the future. The resolution of issues and needs left festering from the past is a priority before moving on. It’s like taking a car in for periodic tune-ups to correct what’s gone wrong so that it will run smoothly in the future. Your looking-back-in-order-to-move-ahead assessment will include the following personal checkpoints:

1.   Healing old wounds

2.   Checking out coping patterns

3.   Refraining personal appearance

4.   “Owning” your spinal cord injury

5.   Integrating disability into your life

6.   Relating to others.

In each area, you need to look at the challenges ahead and the strengths you have to meet them.

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