A caregiver’s role doesn’t provide any time off, and you are always on duty. Caring for a loved one can strain even the most resilient of people. Lack of rest, high stress, and emotional exhaustion are often faced by caregivers. If you are a caregiver, these factors might negatively impact you and your ability to give care.

Here are some common reasons for caregiver stress and how to address them:

1. Feeling like you’re on constant duty

Providing home care assistance to your loved ones involves physical labor, medication reminders, dressing, meal preparation, transportation to an appointment, and more. You are always emotionally and physically connected to the person you are caring for. This constant feeling of duty towards your loved one can leave you completely drained.

Prevention

Take time to figure out what is a realistic and healthy workload for you while cutting back on areas that drain you. Additionally, to reduce your workload, you can take the following actions:

• Take a break by asking a friend to stay with your loved one for an hour or two.
• Have an online pharmacy deliver your loved one’s prescription right to your door.
• Choose respite care services and use this time to recharge.

2. Feeling lonely

You might find that your life revolves around your loved ones as their caregiving needs increase. You might go on for days or even weeks without social interaction, getting exercise, or being able to do the usual activities that you enjoy.

Prevention

Try to interact with others while communicating that meeting up might be difficult and time-constrained. Additionally, to prevent feeling lonely, you can take the following steps:

• Communicate (real-time or virtually) weekly to friends and family.
• Talk to professional therapists in real-time or virtually to seek help on your situation.
• Consider using respite care or full-time in-home care services.

3. A feeling of physical burnout

You are constantly putting pressure on your body as you fulfill the needs of your loved ones. While making sure they receive adequate care and have their needs met, you may find yourself falling into physical exhaustion. Additionally, this exhaustion can affect your mental health and cause you to become irritable, on edge, or anxious.

Prevention

Taking care of yourself and your body is extremely important, especially since you won’t be able to care for your loved one if you are not in a good place physically and mentally. The following steps can help you prevent burnout:

• Make an appointment to see your doctor in a timely manner if you are ill.
• Set personal health goals like eating healthy and going to bed early.
• If your loved one keeps waking you up at night, ask for advice from your healthcare provider on helping your loved one sleep better.

4. Feeling like you don’t know what to do

You might not have been trained on how to provide care to your loved ones. You might not be able to fully grasp your loved one’s limitations or disease, as many diseases like Alzheimer’s can progress quickly. You may constantly be trying to figure out what needs to be done next, but get lost and may not know what to do next.

Prevention

Accepting your confusion and recognizing that your loved one’s quality of care might be affected because it is an important first step to make to take steps to address it. Some steps you can take are:

• Asking health professionals about the various issues you need to deal with which you might not know how to tackle.
• Reaching out for support to online groups, family members, or even a friend.
• Finding a trusted source of information to learn about your loved one’s illness or limitations.

Caregiving can be a long and arduous journey that can cause mental and physical exhaustion as you provide care for your loved ones. In such situations, you can consider full-time in-home care services or in-home respite care services. If you need home care assistance services for your senior loved ones, contact us at Newport Home Care. Our team consists of licensed caregivers highly experienced in providing impeccable care to your loved one.