How to keep motivated to continue therapy

We know its hard to keep at it day after day – especially when you may not see improvement right away, or when improvement slows down. But keeping at it with your therapy is key for your continued recovery!

There is nothing more discouraging than doing hours of work and not seeing results. And even though we know that practice makes perfect, and that putting in the therapy hours should help, sometimes its easy to get discouraged. Whether you just started therapy last week but havent seen any gains or whether youve been at it for years and just arent noticing that same improvement any more, therapy burn-out can hit anyone.

Here are some tips that might help you....

Track your data- Data is your friend! It doesnt lie! It might feel like you just got a million questions in a row wrong, but when you actually check, you might have just gotten 5 more right than last time! Constant Therapy will calculate how many questions you got right and will show you your improvement over time, so use that data as motivation! Remember, if you just went up a level or task in difficulty, you might not get as many right – but think about whether you could have even done that level of difficulty last year, or even last week!

Celebrate successes. If you went to your brothers Super Bowl party this year and were able to say Your team is going to lose, but last year talking was so tough that you didnt even manage to go to the party, THAT is a victory! You may not be debating the pros and cons of putting in player X versus player Y, but you can get there with more practice – youve already come this far!

Ask friends, family, and therapists if they can see a difference. And ask them to be specific. Theres nothing like a specific example, such as YES, I have noticed a HUGE improvement in how well you can get your point across in writing, or Are you kidding, a year ago you couldnt think of the word for table and now youre carrying on conversations!

If its not working, switch it up! Try new therapies! Try new tasks! Give group therapy a try. Download a new app (ahem, hint: Constant Therapy). If youre feeling stuck in a rut, try something new to get you motivated.

Seek support from others with your communication difficulty. Theres nothing like talking to the seasoned guy with aphasia in a support group and hearing that YES, he DID keep improving and still is everyday! The Internet and social media are great tools if youre feeling isolated but cant find or get to a nearby support group. Join a Facebook Page (check out Aphasia Recovery Connection or Aphasia and Aphasia Caregivers Exclusive (ACE) for Aphasia, or the Wounded Warriors Project for a start). There are many groups and other blogs out there – search for support group, discussion, or blog along with your communication difficulty and see whats out there that can motivate you!

HarveyM