Who Counts as a Trauma Survivor?
If you’ve lived through a serious injury, you may have looked at a program like TandemStride and thought: Is this for me? Am I “injured enough”?
You're not alone.
For many people recovering from traumatic injury, the term “survivor” feels distant, or reserved for someone else—someone whose wounds are visible, someone using a wheelchair, or someone who almost didn’t make it.
But the truth is that trauma recovery looks different for everyone.
Visibility Doesn’t Equal Validity
Some people carry the physical markers of trauma: a cast, a scar, a prosthesis, or a mobility aid. Others carry injuries you can’t see: internal damage, chronic pain, neurological changes, or the emotional weight of what happened, like PTSD, panic attacks, and anxiety.
All of it is real.
But because society often treats trauma like a checklist, many people second-guess their own experience. They wait to feel “disabled enough” before they feel like they can ask for help. In reality, that hesitation is one of the most common (and least talked-about) parts of recovery.
Identity Takes Time
Even for those with more visible injuries, claiming the identity of a “trauma survivor” isn’t always immediate or comfortable. Some people resist identifying with a new label. Others aren’t ready to engage with a new community or may have trouble seeing themselves reflected in it. It can take time to accept not just the physical changes, but the emotional and social shifts that follow.
Some survivors feel isolated by their visibility. Others feel erased by their invisibility. And many fall somewhere in between. Recovery has to include space for both.
Your Recovery Is Yours
At TandemStride, we see all kinds of trauma—and we see all kinds of people learning what recovery means to them.
Some are navigating how to return to work, while others are figuring out how to drive again, climb stairs, parent differently, or are grappling with the emotional whiplash of being alive when things could’ve gone another way. There’s no right path through it, but no one should have to go it alone.
Support systems should be built to accommodate the shape of people’s real lives—not just the medical record, the diagnosis code, or the visible wound. That’s why our peer mentors come from a wide range of experiences, and why our platform exists: to offer connection that matches the reality of your recovery.
Whether you’re recovering from a visible injury, living with chronic pain, or quietly adjusting to a new reality—your story counts. And if you’ve ever wondered, “Do I count as a survivor?”, the answer is yes.
