Stress is a given in life, but especially when you’re a caregiver. When the stress is getting to be too much to deal with, though, you might find you’re getting short with other people and you’re having a difficult time managing all that you have to do. It might be time for you to stop and take a breath.
Assess Everything that Contributes to Your Stress Levels
You have to look at everything that’s creating stress for you. In today’s society, that means you’re getting stress from family, from your career, and from a bunch of other sources. If you’re not handling one or more of those aspects of your life well, it’s going to get overwhelming for you everywhere. As a caregiver, you have to pay close attention to what’s happening with you in all aspects of your life because you can easily get yourself into a position where you aren’t able to be there for your senior anymore.
Get Real with Your Emotions
If you’re neglecting your emotions or convincing yourself that they’re not important, that means they’re building up and getting worse. Sometimes caregivers also believe that feeling anger or frustration is something they shouldn’t be feeling if they’re a caregiver. Reality shows that’s not the case. There are going to be times that your senior will do things that frustrate you. What matters is how you handle those feelings.
Take Time Away
Another mistaken belief is that you can’t take time away from caregiving at all. You have to be on call personally all the time. While you might be in that position, that doesn’t mean that you can’t take respite time now and again. If other family members can’t or won’t help, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck. There are other options, like hiring elder care providers to take over for you when you need to take a break.
Put a Plan in Place to Help You Avoid Getting to This Point Again
When you’ve become more aware of what’s contributing the most to your stress levels, you need to develop a plan to resolve those issues moving forward. What’s helped you the most now and what can you do to make sure that helps in the future? Taking care of yourself is going to make sure that you can keep caring for your elder.
Your self-care plan needs to be flexible and needs to meet you where you are now. That means you’re going to need to reevaluate things periodically in order to make sure you’re still where you need to be.
For Elder Care Services in Millington TN, please contact the caring staff at Personal Care Services MidSouth today!