Caregiver Health: If you are a family caregiver, you are going to experience stress.
You might not feel it impacting your life right now, but do this long enough, and you will feel your caregiver health slipping away. There are plenty of examples of family caregivers completely burning out and either no longer caring about whether or not they stop by and support this aging loved one on time or not, lose focus and forget something important, or some other issue arises.
Too often, these family caregivers push themselves just too hard. They go day after day, week after week, seven days straight every week, without a break, and expect nothing bad to happen? It’s not a question of whether a mistake or mishap will happen, but when.
Below are three examples of family caregivers who pushed too hard and burned out, creating a potentially more dangerous situation for the senior than if they had simply recognized their limitations earlier and asked for help.
1. Cheryl kept showing up late for work.
This doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but for Cheryl and many others like her, showing up late for work repeatedly led to a reprimand from her boss. At first, her boss was more than accommodating and understanding.
After all, many people realize just how difficult it can be to support an aging parent or other loved one through difficult times. Unfortunately, Cheryl kept pushing rather than looking into other options, like home care.
Eventually, she was fired from her job and that created a mountain of financial stress on top of the caregiver stress she was already dealing with. She burned out very quickly after that.
2. Tom put his wife and children on the back burner.
Tom and his wife Tina often spent time together. Yet, he was helping his elderly father, who happened to live one town over, more frequently, and he ended up spending less and less time with his children and Tina.
This caused tension in the relationship. That led to arguments, fights, and greater emotional distance. Feeling isolated from the people he loved, Tom was getting burned out.
He knew something had to give, but his father still needed support. So, he continually chose spending time with his father over time with his own family.
3. Mandy skipped her summer vacation.
Last summer was different. There was a pandemic and very few people traveled anywhere. This year, however, Mandy was looking forward to a nice two-week getaway with her significant other, but had to cancel plans when her mother was hospitalized and then needed help at home.
She felt disconnected after a while from her partner, her mother, and others because she kept worrying about her mother’s safety, how much she was giving up in her own life, and none of this was planned.
All of this came out of the blue and the stress of being a caregiver was overwhelming her.
These are just three examples of family caregivers who pushed themselves too hard and, ultimately, burned out of the job of supporting their aging loved ones. Don’t let this bad caregiver health happen to you. Get help in the form of an in-home care aide.