Caregiver Overwhelm: 7 Strategies to Lower Stress and Increase Resilience -- One Alzheimer's Caregiver's Experience

It is now week seven for me as primary caregiver to my 82-year-old mother who has dementia and is nearly blind. It has been challenging, stressful and overwhelming mentally, physically and emotionally. Becoming irritable, snappy and tired are but a few of the signs of stress and caregiver fatigue which have prompted me to up my game in practicing what I preach. That is, pulling out every strategy I know to lower my stress response and avoid burnout. In this post I share seven strategies to lower stress and increase resilience. They are good resilience boosters for everyone, but particularly helpful for caregivers to remember. Lately I have been sleep deprived as my mother has not been sleeping at night. Well, she doesn't sleep in the daytime either! In fact, she will spend day and night talking to imaginary patients in her medical clinic. As a physician my mother was very proud to be sought after for more than prescriptions and medical exams, she was the go-to doc for insight and inspiration for better living. She was known to dispense advice on relationships, self-esteem and even career planning. Now at 82, of all the complaints she has, not being able to counsel and help people are ranked as high as not being able to see and not being able to walk well. While hallucinations are often seen in patients with dementia, I wonder if hers are a self-soothing mechanism to ease her sense of loss. The feeling of uselessness due to a lack of productivity is one I know well. I fi...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news