Have you considered taking a break from Caregiving? Taking time away to recharge?
Studies have shown that taking time away can have physical and mental health benefits. People who take vacations have lower stress, less risk of heart disease, a better outlook on life, and more motivation to achieve goals.
Taking care of an aging or ill loved one can be enormously rewarding but also exhausting and emotionally draining.
Plowing through might feel doable in the short term, but too much time without a break can lead to caregiver burnout, depression and health problems.
EVERY CAREGIVER NEEDS A CAREGIVER — someone who will tend to your loved one for a few hours, days or weeks so you can take care of yourself.
Respite Care can help alleviate some of the symptoms of caregiver burnout by providing day or overnight care services, giving caregivers a much-needed break for a few hours a day or a few days a week.
Respite can come in many forms:...
Today's episode is all about you and your overwhelm. The true facts about how this stress, anxiety, burnout and fatigue creep up on you and before you know it, you are in the thick of it and don’t know what to do.
When I first became a caregiver, I let the adrenaline drive me through the overwhelm. When that faded, I let my mind and body do the work. Well looking back, I now see the 3 stages of overwhelm I went through and it’s toll it took on myself, my Loved One, my friendships and more.
That’s why over the last month, I sat down and really did some digging into this subject. I researched 100s of articles, interviewed caregivers and fead all my journal entries, text messages, facebook post on where I was at.
So today, I want to highlight the 3 stages of caregiver overwhelm - the whats, the why, the hows and more. You can find the entire resource at cathylvan.com/caregiverstress