Caregiver Self-care

As a caregiver rising to the challenges each day brings, do you get angry very often? Do life’s little inconveniences – an important item forgotten at the store when you have no time to go back, a new complaint from your loved one that must be addressed when there’s no room for that on your [...]

In the last two posts I pointed out two very common patterns I have observed in family caregivers, especially those who represent the “first line of defense” in their loved one’s care: How they can fall into such a rut of feeling overwhelmed, burnt out and defeated that they’ve given up trying to carve out time [...]

“Sometimes asking for help is the most meaningful example of self-reliance.” (from poem “Sometimes” by U.S. Senator Cory Booker, then Mayor of Newark) Family caregivers are some of the most capable, hardworking and dedicated people I’ve ever met. They come through for their loved ones, “come hell or high water,” and sacrifice their own self-care [...]

What happens when you feel judged for how much you do to take care of your family member, or criticized for particular choices you’ve made in providing that care? Do you react by feeling like you have to prove to your judges, and justify to your critics, what you do and why you need to [...]