Coping with Guilt When Experiencing Caregiver Stress
Caregivers in Grand Rapids, MI
When you first started your caregiver journey with your elderly loved ones, you likely expected to experience some stress. You knew that taking on the responsibilities of caring for your elderly parents while also balancing the needs of your children, your career, your marriage, your household, and yourself was going to stretch your schedule, put some extra strain on your energy and efforts, and put some pressure on your emotions. Even if you were prepared for this stress, however, you may not have been prepared for the guilt that many family caregiver experience when that stress starts to build up.
Guilt is something that everyone experiences, but it can be detrimental to your care journey with your loved ones. Feeling guilty can make you feel exhausted and disconnected, increase your chances of depression and anxiety, and diminish your quality of life, which in turn decreases your effectiveness and efficiency as a caregiver, parent, and partner.
Use these tips to help you cope with guilt that comes with caregiver stress:
• Identify the cause. Why are you actually feeling guilty? Is it because you are feeling stressed about your care responsibilities, or because you are not fulfilling those responsibilities properly? By being honest with yourself about the actual cause of your guilt you are much more likely to find a healthy and effective way to resolve it.
• Reconnect with yourself. When you take on the role of being a family caregiver it is easy to start feeling like all of your time, effort, and energy should be devoted to these responsibilities, and that anything you have left over after fulling those obligations should be then given to the other people in your life. While it is honorable and loving to want to give so much of yourself in your care relationship, it can also be at the sacrifice of yourself. Remind yourself that you are an individual with your own thoughts, needs, and life, and give yourself permission to continue to honor those even in your daily life.
• Get meaningful help. Simply because you want to take care of your parents does not mean that you can take all of those demands onto yourself all the time. Especially if your life is already full with children, a career, a marriage, and a home of your own, adding on the care of your elderly parents can just be overwhelming. Asking for help can be a tremendous relief of stress that you are feeling, but may result in you feeling guilty for seeking out that help. Reduce this guilt by choosing help that is meaningful and beneficial to your parents. Whether that help comes from your siblings, your close family friends, or a home care provider who is friendly, energetic, and gets along well with your parents, seeing this help as an enhancement to their lives will make you feel better about the situation.
• Seek support. Your emotional needs are valid and seeking encouragement for those needs can help you to keep yourself in a better mental and emotional place throughout your journey. Talk to your partner about what you are going through and allow her to validate your need for time to yourself and help with your parents, or to support you in the choices that you make for them when these start to increase your guilt. If you want an unbiased source of support, seek out a caregiver support group so that you can benefit from the knowledge and empathy of those who are going through similar things in their own care journeys.
If you or someone you know need the help of a professional caregiver in Grand Rapids, MI, contact Gauthier Family Home Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services in our community. Call us at (616) 258-2300 for more information.
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