- Hey everybody happy Thursday.
It's almost Friday thank goodness
and if it's Thursday that means that I'm
on Twitter so if you asked your questions using
#katiefaq I searched through them
and I have three today as well as a journal topic.
Thanks Lauren for that.
So lets get started on some questions.
And tomorrow is World Mental Health Day
so I will talk
about that little bit more tomorrow.
I know for many of you it's
already the 10th of October
but for here for me it's the 9th.
And I wanted to say I have
30,000 subscribers on YouTube.
And I know that happened a little while ago
but I meant to mention it
and sometimes I get so wrapped up in my questions
and then I forget my notes so.
Thank you so much for that.
We're raising awareness one subscriber at a time.
Okay first question.
Hey Katie if you notice that a client has started
to give up hope again
and they tell you that they don't really care
about anything and that they have no motivation
for anything what do you suggest for them to do?
Now I wanted to answer this question
because I think a lot of people feel this way
and I know personally in practice that
a lot of clients do go through periods of this.
Now there are depending on the client there are
various things we can do.
Now I say that depending on the client
because if the client is suicidal
and this kind of wrapped up
in their feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness
stuff like that that's a whole nother ball game
because that often requires me to assess
whether they need inpatient,
like a higher level of care.
Do they need to see me more frequently?
Do I need to call the pet team right now
and possibly fit you with are they a danger.
I don't know.
But if it's a patient that doesn't have
a suicidal past
and that's not something that we talked about
often times it's just lacking in motivation
because like I talk about all the time being
in therapy and working
on our shit is really hard.
Holy, holy crap is it hard.
And it would be so nice if it was easy.
We could all be so happy, healthy
and everything's wonderful
but it takes a lot of effort.
And there are gonna be times we feel
that we can't put the effort in anymore.
And for some of my clients I will ask
them a question, like do you still feel
like you wanna get better
because maybe we should take a little break
and wait til you feel like you're motivated or.
So that's one option.
Maybe take a break from therapy for awhile
until you feel more motivated to work on it.
Or I may take another route
where I have them think
about the reasons why they got into therapy
in the first place and reasons why they want
to recover or work on whatever they're working on
And maybe that could
be people they're doing it for.
It could be goals in their life they wanna meet.
It could be I just don't want
to feel shitty anymore.
I remember when I was at rock bottom last year
it was just so terrible and blah blah blah.
So there's a bunch
of different things that I can do
depending on the patient.
Those are the three most common that I do
to help keep people motivated
and also make sure I'm not pushing them
to get better when they aren't ready
or they don't want to.
Okay.
Now question number two.
Is it bad for me to rely on you, being me,
as a source of comfort everyday,
like if I was having a really bad day
then I would watch your videos.
Now I hadn't actually thought about this
and so that's why I'm answering
because is it okay if you rely on me?
Now from a comfort and you can re watch videos
whenever and you can feel supported
from our community I think
it's fricking wonderful and amazing
and that's why I do this.
Because mental health care
and what I'll talk about tomorrow
because it's World Mental Health Day
but mental health care isn't readily available
for everyone and the cool thing
about YouTube and the cool thing
about our community is that we're making
it available for everyone.
Obviously my videos are in no way a replacement
for your own personal therapy
or seeing your own therapist
or getting your own help from anybody.
It's just an add on.
This is like an extra bink a little extra
so I think it's definitely fine
for you to rely on my videos and me for comfort
knowing farewell that
it's not a replacement for your own therapy.
I'm not your therapist.
I am just trying to help as many people as I can
with he knowledge that I've been given
and learned in school
and then what's the stuff I keep researching,
you know, trying to share with everyone
so we can break through the stigma
and get more make mental health
more readily available for everyone
in the entire world.
That's my goal.
So I think it's definitely okay
if you rely on me.
I'm here aren't I?
I'm pretty consistent.
And sorry the videos uploaded so late yesterday.
YouTube was a bitch and would not upload.
It took like ages and ages and ages
and I was like ahh.
So sorry about that.
Okay question number three.
Hey Katie.
I just came back from my doctor
and he suggested along with other therapy
to start occupational therapy as well.
Have you ever worked with any
and what is it exactly?
Now occupational therapy has changed a lot
over the years and I actually made some notes
on things that I wanted to make sure I brought up
because it just like therapy is
changing all the time.
It started out as one thing
and now it's morphed into other things.
It's kind of become more of a tool that we use--
And where? Oh.
It's something that people will do
to kinda help with our economic situation
as well as our social situation
and how how pretty much our entire environment
affects how we're doing.
And so they will work with you
to potentially lets say help you apply
for a new job, make sure you get
housing that you need.
They will make sure that things are
in place for you.
A lot of occupational therapists are set
into our social services in the United States
so that when you reach out,
when you're on disability or something they'll
send occupational therapists out to your home
to kind of better guide you to get
you the needs and services that are best for you.
Now obviously every occupational therapist is
gonna be different, like I said, it's
a very changing, moving type of field
but in at the overall scope of what it is,
that's kind of how it works.
And often times therapists and physicians will
refer people to it when they feel like talking
about your problems is great
but you actually have some needs that need
to be met like now.
Like housing, jobs, maybe managing
a legal situation that they can put you in touch
with people who can help you
and they help you better manage kind
of your overall social and occupational situation
I think that's why
they call it occupational function.
I don't have any notes here about what it is
but they overall believe
it's it's like nature and nurture.
They're working more on the nurture side
and they believe that affects a lot
of how we function and I have to agree.
A lot of how we're doing in our life can
be related to stressors and things that are going
on in our situation like our,
you know , life situation.
Job, school, living, family, moving, divorcing
you know all those things that are happening
around us can really really affect us.
It can be really great
and I think that you know it can
really help you out.
So without further ado,
I hope that helps explain it.
If any of you have a different varying experience
of what occupational therapy meant for you can
you let us know because I only know
what I've worked with and what technically
an occupational therapist is supposed to do
and like I said everybody's different.
And everybody uses them differently
so let us know if you have
a different experience.
Now the journal topic says everybody wants
to be the sun to lighten up everyone's life
but why not be the moon
to brighten up the darkest hour?
So I'd like you all to sit down
and spend some time thinking to yourself what are
the dark things that have happened to you
and how have you overcome them
or notice when you're feeling
the darkness creep in what are
some ways you that can help shed some light?
You can be the moon.
What are things that can help bring you out
of the darkness a little bit?
And when do we first notice we're slipping
into the darkness?
Having those insights and being able to notice
those earlier rather than later can
be pivotal to our recovery.
And so I would encourage all of you
to spend some time just noticing,
thinking about it.
Are there certain triggers that pull you
into the darkness?
Are there certain triggers on the opposite that
push you into the light, that make you happy?
Happy triggers?
Because we use that word
like it's a negative thing
but it can be a positive thing to.
So spend some time thinking about it.
And I will see you all tomorrow
cause it's finally Friday.
And I'll be on Facebook.
So ask your questions there using #katiefaq.
Bye.