Monday, January 19, 2015

Post Injury Coping Skills

None of us can know all the things we need to learn before we learn them.
by Alison Bonds Shapiro, M.B.A. in Healing Into Possibility
Originally published online by Psychology Today

Did you ever move from one country or state to another - get a new job - find a new place to live? Do you remember how many months it took for you to settle into a routine, finding the best places to buy food, the best route to work, and the local shops? I remember moving to California from Georgia.  It took me months to learn all the details I needed to know in order to create routines in my new area.
Some time after I moved the weather turned cold, and I needed to buy a blanket. If I had still been in Georgia, it would have been easy but when I thought about it, I realized that I didn't know where the best places to look for a blanket might be. Until that moment, I had not needed to know. 

Of course, I figured it out, but it took time and information and concentration. The point was I needed new learning to do something as simple as buying a blanket and I was fully able at the time.

The other day I spoke with a woman who suffered neurological injury in the 1950s and spent time in rehabilitation. In the 1950s people spent much longer in rehabilitation before going back to their lives than is possible today. This woman was in a rehab center for a year. Today people are in a rehab center, on average, 16 -18 days. Think about it.



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