6 Tips for Caregivers Who Are at the End of Their Rope
Elder Care Pompano Beach FL
Caregiving is one of the most stressful things that you can do, but it’s also one of the most rewarding. If you allow yourself to become burned out, you won’t be the caregiver that your elderly loved one needs. Here are some strategies you can use to avoid that.
Share the Burden
Many times caregivers worry that if they ask for outside help, that means they’re not a good caregiver or they don’t care about their elderly loved one. The truth is that neither of those are facts if you get outside help. Talk to friends and family members about helping out or hire elder care providers who can offer assistance. Don’t shoulder the burden all by yourself.
Talk to Someone
Family caregivers tend to bottle up their emotions because they’re afraid that once they open up, they won’t stop crying, or yelling, or expressing their emotions in some other way. Being able to vent those emotions periodically is really important though, and everyone needs someone they can talk to. Try a friend or relative or even a therapist if that’s more comfortable, but talk to someone.
Accept That You Have Limits and Pace Yourself
As a family caregiver, you do have your limits. You don’t know how long you’ll be caring for your elderly loved one, so it’s essential that you learn to pace yourself so that you don’t reach those limits today or even tomorrow. Balance yourself out so that you have something left to give.
Foster Independent Relationships
It’s tough to maintain friendships and other relationships when you’re busy caring for your elderly loved one. You absolutely have to make time for those connections, however. Do what you can to maintain those relationships, even if it’s just phone calls and text messages for a little while.
Maintain Your Sense of Humor
You really can find humor in any situation, but you have to allow yourself to see the funny side of it. We all need to laugh. It’s healing and it helps you to feel good even when everything else doesn’t feel so great. Learn to laugh at the hard stuff so that it doesn’t break you.
Use Anger as Fuel
As a family caregiver, you’re going to feel anger. You might be angry at your loved one’s illness, you might be angry at your loved one. Those situations happen. Turn that anger around and use it as fuel to keep you going. Maybe it helps you to keep exercising even when you don’t want to or maybe it helps fuel the fire that has you looking for medical answers. Regardless, anger can be a strong fuel if you don’t let it burn you down.
Caregiving is tough work, but it doesn’t have to beat you up.
