Illness Forced an Occupational Therapist to Rethink Her Purpose

The author had nearly passed out at work before accepting that something was seriously wrong. She kept going because leaving a career she had trained for, built friendships around and depended on financially felt more threatening than her worsening health. Eventually, illness made the decision for her.

Retirement brought anxiety about family finances and disrupted routines, as well as grief over losing the title “occupational therapist.” The unexpected relief that came with it raised a difficult question: if the job was her purpose, why did giving it up feel freeing? She had told patients their identities were larger than their roles, but had not applied that lesson to herself.

She argues that professionals can mistake a job for purpose because titles and paychecks offer visible proof of achievement, while meaning is harder to measure. Workplaces often reward advancement rather than reflection, she writes, so people may not question their path until illness, layoffs, restructuring or personal loss forces the issue.

Finding what carried across roles

For the author, rebuilding began not with choosing a new purpose but with identifying which parts of her identity belonged to her rather than her job. She looked for qualities that persisted before, during and after her time as an OT: explaining complicated ideas simply, helping people understand their circumstances and drawing energy from connection rather than credentials. Those strengths appeared in clinic work, food blogging and speaking on camera.

She now considers three questions when making career decisions: What capability remains hers regardless of title? Is her urge to change driven by restlessness or fear of instability? And what small test—such as a conversation, class or project—can she try this month? Small experiments, she says, can bring clarity without requiring a decision about everything at once.

The author practices occupational therapy again, but in a different way and on terms she chose. She sees that return not as undoing her pivot, but as realignment. Her central lesson: a job title can vanish quickly, while the skills and values beneath it can continue across changing roles.