Avoiding Caregiver Burnout

Caring for one's loved ones is a tough job that requires a lot of responsibility. As a family caregiver, not only do you have to manage your loved one's health and medical needs, you also have to manage their daily living needs, including legal, financial, and social concerns. Judging from the important issues listed above, it is not hard to see that caregiving is often difficult, exhausting, and emotionally upsetting. Many times it feels like the care-receiver makes too many demands on the caregiver. At the same time, the caregiver still has to deal with her/his own responsibilities of work, marriage, and child rearing/parenting. In addition, the care-receiver and the caregiver may not see eye-to-eye regarding how caregiving situations should be handled.

Stress can be exhibited in a number of ways: physical symptoms such as muscle tension or increased blood pressure, behavioral symptoms such as depression or verbal or physical abuse, emotional symptoms such as the inability to concentrate, or loss of self-esteem, or participate in escape activities, such as excessive alcohol or drug use. To better manage stress it may be necessary to modify the source of stress and/or change your reaction to it.

To combat any stress that comes with being a caregiver it may be advantageous to keep a stress journal, noting events and issues that triggered a feeling of stress. Laughter, exercise, breathing techniques, meditation; guided imagery or visualization, yoga, music, a long, hot bath and other simple remedies are available to relieve stress. The main thing is that caregivers need to realize they must take care of themselves as well, to not let stress get to them. Otherwise, you'll fail as a caregiver and be left with your own physical or emotional pains.

To avoid the stress of caregiving and, what I like to call, "caregiver burnout" it is important to share your feelings about your caregiving experience. Find someone you can talk to about this. Support groups are a sure-fire method of finding someone with whom you can talk.

Ultimately, there are eight steps a caregiver must focus on to control those things that cause stress:

1. Become aware of your stressors and your reactions. Don't gloss over your problems.

2. Recognize what you can change and change what you can.

3. Reduce the intensity of your emotional reactions to stress. Are your expectations accurate?

4. Learn to moderate your physical reactions to stress. Take deep, slow breaths.

5. Build your physical reserves. Exercise.

6. Maintain your emotional reserves. Be kind to yourself.

7. Find someone to talk to about what you're feeling. Join a support group.

8. If you cannot change the situation and cannot change the way you view the situation, you can still manage stress by mastering other skills. You can learn to "turn off" your stress.

Achieving the ability to turn one's stress off is an important component to being the best caregiver possible. This is a difficult task to undertake with immediacy, however, it is something that can be achieved by following the steps and passages listed above.