How Recreational Therapy Can Help With Pain Management

Few people realize that recreational therapy programs can help with something as serious pain management.  While recreational therapy programs help people find more enjoyment in life, be more active, and socialize, it also offers functional intervention—which means it helps make your everyday functioning easier. One of the many aspects of daily functioning is controlling pain.

Goal Setting in Recreational Therapy

Part of a good recreational therapy program is actively setting goals, discussing how to meet those goals with a caregiver, and assessing whether those goals can be achieved. If one of your goals is to manage pain, recreational therapy is a key tool.

Personalized Exercise

Many of the activities that recreational therapists focus on involve low-impact exercises, like walking or even standing. When enjoying recreational therapy, you’ll couple the exercise with something you love, like time in nature, with animals, or whatever appeals to you. While you may not be motivated to exercise for its own sake, recreational therapy makes stretching, moving, and balancing fun again. Research has found that this exercise helps reduce the pain from many chronic pain disorders, including:

• Neck pain
• Osteoarthritis
• Headache
• Fibromyalgia
• Lower back pain

Mood Boosting

When you suffer from chronic pain, it can be hard to enjoy the activities you used to, as they now cause you pain. However, recreational therapy finds ways to support your motion or adjust your activities, so that you can enjoy your favourite hobbies without stressing your body. Or, recreational therapists can expose you to new hobbies you’ll enjoy, further boosting your mood.

You’ll also be happier and more confident because recreational therapy programs offer social opportunities and new experiences. Research has demonstrated that recreational therapy can even reduce symptoms of mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, anger management issues, and bipolar disorder, which can all effect physical pain as well as mental. The mind and the body are connected, and recreational therapy starts a positive feedback loop between the two, where your mood is better because your pain is reduced, and vice versa.

Recreational Therapy Programs For Pain Management From iCare Home Health

When you invest in premier home care from iCare Home Health, you should strongly consider recreational therapy to support your other care services. It’s not “just” fun and games, recreational therapy can improve your quality of life just as the more practical aspects of premier home care do—like laundry services and medical care. Contact iCare to get started with our recreational therapy and manage your pain.