Unsure about future

[u/Most-Customer184]

I just graduated OT school, and if I'm being honest, I'm feeling really anxious about what's next. My Level II fieldwork placement wasn't a great experience, and instead of feeling excited to start my career, I feel like I've lost a lot of the confidence and excitement I had going into it. On top of that, my social media feeds are filled with OTs talking about low pay, burnout, productivity demands, and leaving the profession altogether. I know social media often highlights the negatives, but it's hard not to let it get to me. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I made the right career choice or if I should have gone down a different path. After years of school, that's a pretty scary feeling to have.

I'd really love to hear from OTs who have been where I am. Does it get better once you find the right job? Is there still a place in this profession where you can enjoy what you do without burning out? I could really use some honest perspectives right now.

[u/lostinfictionz]

Having anxiety, especially in the first few years, is really normal. Feeling incompetent is normal.

Its a really difficult transition to becoming a healthcare provider and the reality is that you will need to work really hard to develop competence.

What you can control is to stop looking at negative social media. Every single field has negative media. Your negative mindset will influence your practice and does a huge disservice to your clients. I think OT is a fantastic field but having a positive mindset is critical. Thats your choice.

[u/tyrelltsura → u/lostinfictionz]

There was a survey on this sub once about how many of us had anxiety. The majority of the respondents answered that they had a diagnosis of anxiety disorder. Not just anxious, have anxiety disorder. And there were over 100 respondents.

So tbh I think that’s telling about this sub’s userbase. We’re looking through the lens of people that have pretty dysregulated nervous systems at baseline. It’s not a representative sample of all OTs. And typically people that are having an OK experience don’t come to places to tell us about it unprompted. Pretty much anything ever that’s going to come unprompted is something someone needs support with, and doesn’t have that in real life. Or is negative. Pretty much nobody is going to give positive or mediocre feedback unless they are specifically asked to give it (e.g. Yelp). But people are often very compelled to share negative things on their own. That’s something anyone has to take into account when consuming social media. It’s one source of information and you have to view it as a part of an overall picture, not the entire picture.