Caregivers of Older Adults Blog | Stress

Self‑care keeps your body and mind in peak condition. But it's hard to find time for self‑care when you spend your days caring for someone else. Perhaps you're parenting young children while also caring for aging parents. Maybe you're a caregiver for your spouse or an elderly friend or family member. Your caregiving role could be all the more challenging if your loved one has dementia. 

Being a family caregiver can be stressful. Mental burnout will occur quickly if you don’t stay on top of self‑care. Start by making small, wellness‑focused changes to your life. You’ll soon experience the benefits. Many aspects of self‑care seem obvious, like getting enough sleep, taking time to relax, eating a healthy diet, and getting regular exercise. Unfortunately, though these activities have proven benefits for mental health, they're often overlooked. 

We often talk about how to help caregivers be better caregivers. At the same time, we are also keenly aware of the tremendous burden of caregivers, and the impact of that burden on their overall health and wellness. The good news? They don’t have to do it alone. 

Approximately 75 percent of caregivers consider their caregiving situations to be highly or moderately stressful, according to The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the AARP Public Policy Institute’s “Caregiving in the U.S.” report. In some cases, this leads to a debilitating phenomenon known as compassion fatigue. While less discussed than caregiver stress and burnout, this condition is common among caregivers. 

How To Prepare Responsibly For The Future

As healthcare improves and advances in medicine progress, we’re living longer. It’s important that we help senior loved ones manage their finances carefully so that they make their later years truly golden. A healthy financial situation can also help reduce stress and lead to a better quality of life for seniors.

Here are a few tips for ensuring that your loved one is being financially responsible with their resources.

While caring for a loved one offers a unique sense of fulfillment, it also comes with many responsibilities. According to "Stress in America: Our Health at Risk," a study from the American Psychological Association, more than half of all caregivers feel overwhelmed. Not only that, but they are far more likely to feel stress -- and its consequences -- than those who are not caring for someone. Read on to learn what you need to know about caregiver stress and how you can combat it in your own life.

Caregiving offers fulfillment, but it's also hard work.

The Facts on Stress and Caregiving
Do you lay awake at night? Binge eat or miss meals? Skip routine doctor check-ups? If so, you're not alone. Unfortunately, these behaviors are common in caregivers and can lead to long-term consequences.

The holidays are a time of homecoming when we gather with family and share good food, good times and good conversations, but for people who don't live near their parents, going home for the holidays can also provide time to assess how elderly parents are doing at home.

Your parents may be fine, but when people get older, it can be easy to miss signs of poor health, memory problems and other issues that should be addressed before things worsen. Make your holiday visit as special as ever, but keep an open mind and a watchful eye.

Pay Attention

"Autumn has come in its predictable way; the heat of summer is giving way to cooler breezes in anticipation of winter. Change is in the air. For all of us, the changing of the seasons is a reminder that we, too, must change. In fact, it is an apt metaphor for our need to adapt to the ever-evolving circumstances of our aging lives."  

Author Patrick Abore, Ph.D. eloquently captures the importance of paying attention to the stirring within each of us as the movements of the seasons call us also to change.

Just as the season changes when the weather starts turning a bit cooler and nights get longer, so do our thoughts change as we begin to reflect on letting go and releasing those things in our lives that may have become burdensome. If you have recently become a caregiver for a parent, a spouse or other family member, there may be many changes in your life; some that may be causing difficulty or anxiety. Perhaps the person you are caring for has always lived an independent life, but now requires help to accomplish even simple tasks. Think about how difficult it must be for them to adjust to these types of transitions in life - going from something old and familiar to something new and unfamiliar. 

It was so painful to watch; she gently and adoringly held his hand and stroked his withered face as he looked at her with a questioning look unable to recognize his wife of 56 years. The disease seemed to have crept up or perhaps it was there for a long time, yet accepting the reality was just not something anyone in the family was prepared to fully recognize.