The caregiver role can be quite rewarding, yet it is also a challenging experience that not only tries you physically and mentally but emotionally as well. When the caregiving lasts over a long period of time, the result is often stress and a lot of it. You will feel all of these conflicting emotions that you feel guilty for experiencing – especially when you have experienced such positive aspects in your caregiving relationship with your ailing loved one.
Of all the experiences you derive from caregiving, the emotional demands are perhaps the most draining.
With stress held within the body physically, you can experience some relief with a hot bath or massage, but what about the stress that resides in your emotions? You have to find some type of relief that touches your soul so you can rest at night and feel refreshed for the caregiving day ahead.
Each person needs something different when it comes to assuaging those emotional issues that builds up during your caregiving experience. Here are some problems you may experience along with some suggestions to consider for emotional relief:
1. Caregiving can tend to bring on a sense of isolation because your friends and family are out in the world while you are inside tending to your ill loved one.
Break that sense of isolation by getting out and taking a walk or a drive. If you have no one to relieve you at that moment, bundle up your loved in a wheelchair and roll them around the neighborhood park or take them for a drive in the country. Even a trip to the grocery store with your loved one in a motorized chair or wheelchair should help.
2. You might lack the time to engage in personal hobbies and relaxation time is hard to come by during your caregiving duties.
No one said that you should be the sole person caring for your loved one. If you are married, prevail on your spouse or even an older child to sit with your loved one and spend some time with them. You can then leave the house, meet a friend or do whatever you want. And best of all, other people are connecting to your loved one which means that they feel as if they are in the loop of activity and not isolated either.
3. You may feel that you have no one to turn to or that no one understands what you are going through. Overburdened is a natural effect of caregiving and you may also feel that you have no control over your life.
The bottom line is that you need to seek help for these feelings. Turn to a trusted friend, minister or counselor and talk about what you’re feeling. You need affirmation that it is ok to feel angry, sad, resentful and even guilty. Consider joining a support group for caregivers, others who have walking in the same overburdened shoes you are.
You have got to be realistic about the demands of caregiving and know up front that you are not going to be everything to everybody unless you get some help. Before you sign on as caregiver to your sick loved one, examine your home atmosphere, schedule and other aspects of your life. What would caregiving interrupt? How can you work around it? Who can you enlist to help when needed? Outlining some of the sources of potential emotional distress in advance means that you can work hard to avoid them during your caregiving tenure. That is not to say that you won’t ever experience stress but that you will recognize it for what it is and react accordingly before it morphs into a more serious problem.
