Occupational therapy is about providing the right support so that individuals can “live, not exist”. When I was seriously mentally unwell focus was difficult but colouring provided a simple activity that used little energy and helped occupy my broken mind, step by step I managed to rebuild my life.
Do you always feel as though happiness is over-there-somewhere? Never quite within reach? Do you judge your current situation as not good enough? Do you set goals, thinking, “when I attain that, I’ll be happy”? Happiness is more likely to be attained if you re-frame your thinking.
We’re doing a good job of raising awareness of mental illness but we need to be careful that we don’t label every emotional difficulty as an illness. Language is powerful, using medical terminology to describe a normal emotional reaction is unhelpful – we need to learn to manage our normal emotions as just that.
