Many people believe that having a spinal cord injury must be extremely stressful. While no one knows this for sure, some recent research is helping us to find the answers to this question. One group that was studied was made up of almost 200 British spinal cord injury (SCI) survivors between the ages of 34 and 74 and injured more than 20 years. They were followed for 6 years, and the stress they reported was compared with their medical diagnoses, their other health problems, their level of physical and emotional function, and their involvement in their communities. It seems that what wasn't found is at least as important as what was found. The severity of the spinal cord injury was not at all a factor in how much stress people felt. No matter how you measured the severity of the Disability—by how much paralysis the person had, by how physically dependent they were, or by how much help they needed—it did not predict how much stress a given SCI survivor might have. Another stress study involving younger SCI survivors, done at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas found the same thing: there was no connection between the severity of the disability and the amount of stress. What was related to stress? Not much: not heart disease, not ulcers, not cancer, not even such common SCI problems as pressure sores or shoulder pain. Among the British people studied, those with the most stress did complain of more fatigue. Some of them also had more stomach pain and nausea. Over time, those with higher stress also seemed to use more alcohol. These were the only health issues that seemed to have any relationship to stress. Does this mean that SCI survivors don't have to worry about stress-related health problem? No. What it likely means is that the SCI group studied was too small, and the time period too short for these serious but slowly developing stress-related problems to show up.
On the other hand, this same research showed that stress in spinal cord injury does play a role in psychological adjustment and happiness. The British SCI survivors who had more stress thought that their quality of life was lower than those who had little stress. They were more dissatisfied with their lives and they had more physical and emotional symptoms of Depression too. When studied again three years later, they were still unhappy and depressed. The stress study done in Texas with spinal cord injuries also found that life dissatisfaction and depression were
related to high stress. All of these findings seem to tell the same thing: If you have stress now, look into stress management and other ways to get a handle on it! How does the stress reported by SCI survivors compare with that of nondisabled people? The only way we have to make comparisons is by looking at the work of other researchers who used the same stress test as we did. Here's what we found out:
In one study of Americans without disabilities, their stress scores were about the same as the British SCI survivors.
The Texan SCI survivors, however, had more stress than the British SCI survivors did. This could be because the Texans were younger and weren't injured as long.
College students had more stress than the SCI survivors.
The wives who cared for the British SCI survivors themselves had more stress.
Unfortunately, until there's research that directly compares SCI survivors and nondisabled people, we won't know for sure how you stack up, but you can safely assume that:
Newly injured people may have more stress
Their stress level should decrease over time
No one should tell you that because you've got a spinal cord injury you ought to have more stress. Since we know that the severity of your injury isn't a factor in stress, it may be that just having a spinal cord injury isn't a key factor, either.
Whether you're spinal cord injured or not, we know that too much stress is not good. These are possible signs of stress:
Headache
Trouble sleeping
Dry mouth
Irritability
Teeth grinding
Moodiness
Forgetfulness
Lack of creativity
Anger
Increased smoking
Sadness
Dissatisfaction
Tight shoulders & neck muscles
More alcohol or drug use
Depression
Tension
Feeling too hyper or out of control
There's a good chance that your spinal cord injury is not, in itself, the cause of your stress. However, there is an
