Top challenges faced by a caregiver and how to overcome them
A caregiver provides an important and often underappreciated service to the people they care for. While family caregiving is a fulfilling experience, it can also be demanding and stressful and often leave a caregiver feeling overwhelmed and burned out. Family caregivers are expected to manage their own lives while they are fully engaged in taking care of their loved ones, and this can be a daunting task. It is important that a caregiver deal with the emotional challenges of caring for someone because pent-up emotions lead to more emotional challenges further down the line, such as resentment, anxiety, and depression.
In this article, we will discuss common emotional challenges faced by caregivers and how to overcome them.
Caring for others is both rewarding and stressful. Most caregivers enjoy the sheer satisfaction of helping a family member or another person. However, after a certain period of time, a shift in roles and feelings is unavoidable, and it is reasonable to feel furious, frustrated, fatigued, alone, or sad. Caregivers who are anxious are more vulnerable to changes in their own health, which create emotional challenges.
Let's look at some of the challenges caregivers face and how to cope with them.
1. Feeling isolated:
Isolation is one of the foremost emotional challenges faced by a caregiver. Caring for someone can make you feel isolated, especially if the people around you don't understand. Alternatively, you may not feel comfortable disclosing or even admitting that you are a caregiver.
It is important to communicate with your loved ones whenever possible. Lack of socialisation leads to depression, which only furthers your feeling of isolation. So the key to avoiding such feelings is to connect with people and have open conversations.
2. Get regular exercise:
The possibility of getting proper exercise while you are fully engaged in caring is very slim. However, there are tremendous benefits if a caregiver is physically active, such as being able to manage weight, reduce disease risk, and strengthen muscles and bones while improving cognitive function. The key to an effective exercise routine is finding an activity you enjoy and that fits your busy schedule.
3. Running out of time:
As a caregiver, you might feel that there are never enough hours in a day and that you would wish for another extra hour. Invariably, some important things had to be pushed out, to the point that they got lost altogether. However, you can't increase the length of the day, and sleeping less is not an option. The only choice left is to manage your time better. The better you are at time management, the more time you will have. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
a) Make self-care a high priority.
b) Decide what is actually essential.
c) Use lists and planners.
4. Finding time for yourself:
When looking after someone, it is easy to neglect yourself. Caring often leads to less time for focusing on your own needs. However, it is important to prioritise your own health, as only you will be able to provide an effective care service. So, be sure to take care of your health and get proper rest so that your health and well-being are maintained.
5. Eat a healthy diet:
While caring for another person, a caregiver might not be able to keep track of their diet. In such cases, a caregiver opts for easy grab-and-go snacks, which can be unhealthy, and might not be able to eat a balanced meal and drink on time. However, eating a balanced meal, which includes plenty of fruits and veggies, and swapping fatty foods with leaner options. Hydrating is also important, as it can help relieve fatigue, control hunger, and maintain cognitive function.
6. Get your sleep:
In addition to a nutritious diet and regular exercise, prioritising sleep will help you function better during the day. However, this is easier said than done. According to WhatASleep (UK), an estimated 20.6 million people, or 1 in 3 in the country, suffer from insomnia and sleep deprivation. That’s 31% of the entire UK population struggling to sleep. If you, as a caregiver, struggle to sleep, try adopting relaxation techniques in addition to a healthy diet and workout routine. Additionally, you can consult with your doctor to find techniques to help you improve your sleep. Here are a few approaches you can opt for:
a) Consider an alternative sleep schedule.
b) Don't overlook napping.
c) Set firm boundaries about your rest times.
d) Practice good sleep hygiene.
e) Be cautious about what you eat before bed, as some foods and beverages can keep you awake.
7. Caregiver guilt:
Caregiver guilt is an emotional challenge most carers face, which makes them feel like they should be doing more or that they have failed in some way. As a caregiver, your guilt can be due to various factors, such as: you made a bad decision, which landed the senior in a hospital; you have been 'too' lenient with the senior, allowing them to do anything they wish, even at the expense of their health; and so on. The first thing to understand is that the caregiver guild is often misplaced, as most of them often feel guilty because they were expecting too much of themselves to begin with.
Caring is hard and can be emotionally challenging at times, pushing you to your limits, which can lead you to make bad decisions. However, don't feel guilty, as taking care of yourself is important too. Knowing that you cannot care for another person well without also caring for yourself is something to think through. Understanding that the more you push yourself aside, the more you'll struggle and the less productive you'll be as a caregiver is also important.
8. Chronic physical and emotional stress:
This is one of the most inevitable emotional challenges a caregiver faces, as caregiving is an ongoing task. It can drain you, leading to emotional fatigue and physical health problems. In fact, caregivers often suffer from mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, which can lead to the point where they themselves need support. A caregiver can't fully remove the stress of caregiving, but there are various ways you can manage it. A caregiver is aware he/she needs to take care of themselves, but doing this in practice is entirely different. However, as a caregiver, you should understand the importance of self-care and take the necessary actions.
These are some of the emotional challenges a caregiver faces while providing care for another person. Though emotional challenges are inevitable, as a caregiver, you should find ways to cope with them in order to provide the most effective, productive, and satisfactory care to the patient.
Nurses Group Homecare understands the importance of work-life balance in the life of a caregiver and thus arranges respite care so that a family caregiver or a professional carer can rely on our service when they are faced with various emotional challenges. We give equal importance to our caregivers and help them tackle various emotional challenges they might go through.