Seven ways occupational therapy can improve your life

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Occupational therapy (OT) is a program that aims to help individuals recuperate from physical or mental issues through the repetition of daily tasks.

For example, if you went through a car accident and were hospitalised for weeks, you'd naturally have a hard time performing simple tasks independently such as tidying up or making meals.

Occupational therapy often involves tasks that aim to improve the following skills:

While this type of therapy is known to be most suitable for senior citizens and disabled persons, in reality, it can also work with ordinary individuals such as yourself, and here's why.

Emotion is the cause of many problems. It clouds your mind and disrupts your judgment, pushing you to do things without thinking of consequences.

It's also one of the main reasons you make bad decisions, so handling your emotions would definitely help with everyday life.

As surprising as it may be, occupational therapy also involves numerous tasks that help improve your control over your emotion and impulse, which might be what you're looking for.

You've probably had those times when you can't get much work done. No matter what you do, your productivity simply doesn't improve whatsoever, which is quite common for a lot of people.

Oftentimes, unproductivity is the result of poor time and stress management skills. In short, if you want to become more productive, you need to enhance your time and stress management first, and occupational therapists can help you with both.

As you grow older, your memory becomes blurrier while your attention span gets shorter. Unfortunately, no one can win against old age. You can, however, slow down the process. One way to address this issue is by engaging in memory-enhancing and problem-solving activities every once in a while, both of which are usually accounted for in occupational therapy.

To be precise, therapists often encourage patients to engage in puzzles, riddles, brainteasers, etc.

As you get more immersed in your work and studies, you may find yourself becoming too busy to interact with others, such as your friends, coworkers, even your family.

And if you're normally an introvert, your social interaction skills can become nonexistent, which is another reason why people tend to look for occupational therapists.

To be precise, occupational therapists may help identify the root of your social anxiety, what affects them, and how you can get rid of them. With this information, they can create a program tailored to your needs.

More often than not, when you're too busy with work or studies, you tend to forget to take care of yourself.

Perhaps you're not getting enough sleep or you skip meals now and then. Maybe you spend too much time in Facebook. All these can negatively impact your health.

On the other hand, occupational therapy was designed for senior citizens, disabled persons, and underdeveloped children, so the treatment often involves tasks that enhance one's self-care skills.

Even if you're not in any of these groups of individuals, occupational therapy may still get you to develop healthy habits, therefore improving your self-care skills.

It's also worth noting that occupational therapy may help you both mentally and physically. For starters, it improves your balance and coordination.

Therapists often improve these aspects by encouraging patients to engage in activities that enhance these aspects, such as yoga, bowling, and more.

By improving balance and coordination, it may also reduce the chances of you getting into slips, falls, and other types of accidents.

Living in a new town, meeting new people, retirement-these are just a few examples of things you'll go through in your life. Naturally, it'd take a while before you can adjust to these major changes, even more so later in life.

Sometimes, these life transitions can even lead to adverse effects such as depression or anxiety. In such cases, occupational therapy would be a great decision, especially since it could improve your coping skills.

Conclusion

Occupational therapy might not be as popular as physical therapy or psychotherapy, but it sure does bring a lot to the table. It could even help you become physically fit and mentally stable-both of which are necessary qualities that are desirable for a happy life.