Frustration is a Promise Breaker and Unsafe

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

September 27, 2015

Frustration is emotionally draining. I am talking about 15 seconds of frustration as you struggle to pull up your pants one-handed every time you go to the bathroom and 15+ minutes of frustration while cutting up food. Fatigue is common after a stroke so the energy that frustration uses is not good. Two year olds recover quickly from a tantrum because they sleep like the dead. I watched a video of a young child sleeping peacefully through the shriek of a smoke detector. If frustration exhausts stroke survivors, the person they made a promise to is going to be disappointed.

Frustration can also be unsafe. Safety awareness goes out the window as frustration mounts. Grunting and concentrating fiercely for ten minutes while struggling to open my hand during an OT session is one thing. Cutting off a piece of my finger is another. Dropping a therapy ball is not the same thing as dropping a knife. In my opinion, activities that require knives or high heat should be done by working smarter instead of harder. See one solution below.

I avoid frustration and increase safety when cutting up food. For example, I cut up an orange using a Swedish Deluxe cutting board that has a vise.

Graham Drummand has arthritis. He designed a cutting board that gives him control even though he is unable to fully close his hand around the knife handle or the food. I am sure frustration and safety issues motivated him to design the cutting board below.


Standard YouTube License @ cibocal

P.S. I struggled to peel an orange with short fingernails when I had two good hands. I could have avoided a lot of frustration if I had seen this video - Life Hack: Fastest way to peel an orange on YouTube.

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Frustration is a Promise Breaker and Unsafe

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