A Parent’s Perspective

“Mrs. Assad, you need to accept that your son has suffered a burn injury and is badly scarred. Scars are ugly. We don’t like them, but we can’t take them away. They are a part of who your son is now. This burn is severe; you are lucky William is alive. That is all you should be focused on right now.” Hearing from a renowned burn specialist in New York City that his only remedy for the injury was acceptance left me stunned. Waking up to the realization that my son would forever be changed as a result of the accident opened the floodgates of guilt, and I found myself stuck in a dark place. Alicia Assad was able to move forward from guilt to gratitude. Read more to find out how she did it.

Guilt…One Way That We Cope

Dealing with Guilt? Of all the emotions that families endure in a crisis, guilt seems to be one of the hardest to resolve. The guilt that one can experience is often a result of burdensome thoughts we place on ourselves. It is what I call the “coulda, shoulda, woulda” effect. It is the magical thinking that helps return to us some control of a situation that is out of our control. Read this article to learn how you can deal with guilt in a healthy way.

Moving Beyond Guilt

When accidents happen, we often end up blaming ourselves. A group of burn survivors discussed this topic in a breakout session at Phoenix WBC [2012]. Excerpts of that session are included here with permission from 2 burn survivors, Frank McGonagle and Ed Kavcak, who graciously agreed to share their stories.

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