Caring for the Caregiver!
Dear Caregivers,
Anyone who has traveled by airplane has heard this phrase “Take your oxygen first!” when the flight attendants explain how to use the plane’s emergency oxygen masks. This is important, because if you’re traveling with a young child or an elderly person, your natural reaction as a caregiver is to make sure they are safe, first, before you help yourself. But in fact, if you ignore your own need for oxygen, there is a good chance you will be unable to help your loved one.
The meaning is clear: If you don’t take care of yourself first, you’ll be unable to care for your loved ones in their time of need.
For most caregivers, learning that a loved one has a progressive memory loss disorder such as Alzheimer’s is a sudden signal that their lives are about to change, with tremendous responsibilities and difficult decisions ahead. But it’s also a signal that you need to ensure that you take care of your own well-being, too, so that you’ll be able to give the best care possible to your loved one in the coming years.
When you neglect your own physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, you cannot possibly give effective care to a loved one. Ask yourself this: If you are not feeling well or you have neglected your own physical fitness and have no physical energy, how will you be able to keep the extra hours you’ll need for all the additional work caregiving requires? If you’re depressed to the point where you can’t face getting out of bed, how can you keep your loved one and the rest of your family positive and moving forward?
Read on to learn more about how to nurture your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, so that you can meet the enormous challenges of giving care to your loved one.
Know the Dangers:
It would seem to be a given that many caregivers would be depressed or suffer from anxiety, given all the challenges they are facing day to day. But it is critical to separate the expected ordinary sadness or anxiety that arises when a loved one is afflicted with Alzheimer's disease from the emotionally and physically debilitating mental conditions of "major” depression or anxiety. Here’s how to better understand the mental challenges of depression and anxiety, and how to address them.
Take Action:
Here are some concrete steps you can take to help influence your overall health. For example, how well you sleep is strongly connected to your overall physical, cognitive, and emotional wellbeing. Likewise, extensive research over the past decades has shown that as little as 20 minutes of daily meditation has dramatic effects on physical health. Here are some tips on how to get better-quality sleep, and instructions on how to meditate.
Make Peace and FInd Your Community:
In the end, caregiving is a life altering journey full of sadness, but also, perhaps unexpectedly, of tremendous joy, satisfaction, and community. Here’s how to find your caregiving village, and how to discover the deep joys of being a family caregiver.
Remember, if you can’t find the information you need on our website, you can always “Ask NAN” by clicking on this link.
Best,
Rosemary D Laird, MD, MHSA
Founder and Chief Medical Officer
“My caregiver mantra is to remember: the only control you have is over the changes you choose to make.”
— Nancy L. Kriseman
