Even those who aren't disabled eventually come to realize that as the years go by, the buffer that separates independence from dependence grows progressively thinner and thinner. If we live long enough, we all eventually become dependent, for a greater or lesser period of time. With a spinal cord injury, that realization comes early. You don't have to add many years to your injury to become painfully aware that your independence is fragile, that at some point, the only thing that will stand between you and an impossible living situation is the help of another person. Yet you fought a long, valiant battle to win your independence after injury, and you'll do anything to preserve it.
Any compromise seems like fundamental failure.
For most survivors, weaned on the holy grail of self-sufficiency, that's a terrible dilemma. The dilemma doesn't go away. But it may not be so terrible, either. Like it or not, the need for help is as much a part of the spinal cord injury picture as wheelchairs. About 40 to 45 percent of SCI survivors use some kind of personal assistance, and the percentage increases with age.