The East Central Florida Memory Clinic Newsletter

Caring for the Caregiver

As  individuals who work with patients dealing with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementing disorders know, they are devastating disorders for those who are experiencing them.  But these disorders are farther reaching, as they also impact the patients’ families, who often feel either financially or emotionally compelled to care for their family members.  On top of being forced to watch helplessly as the unpredictable nature of these disorders ravages the minds and lives of their loved ones, they frequently must do so in a world that has little understanding for the requirements and difficulties of their circumstances.

As the result of the strain of living with and caring for an Alzheimer’s patient, family members and caregivers commonly experience the following:

• Stress symptoms such as fatigue, digestive and other physical pains, and sleeping problems.
• Feelings of depression, anger, grief, as well as a sense of being overwhelmed with life that caretakers experience.
• Changes in personal relationships including the relationship with the person suffering from the disorder.
• Decreased sexual intimacy.
• Loss of income from cost of caregiving, and from missed work.
• Feeling isolated and disconnected from both other family members and from a world that does not understand the reality of the caregiver’s experience.
• Loss of time for themselves.

These feelings may be more or less present at various stages in the progression of a dementing disorder.  Nevertheless, many of these issues will present themselves at some point in the caregiver’s life.  By recognizing the potential negative impact that these feelings and experiences can have on themselves and their loved ones, caregivers can then take the following steps to deal with their experiences more effectively:

• Take each day as it comes.
• Recognize what you are and are not able to do.
• Be realistic about your loved one’s changing abilities.
• Have a sense of humor.
• Understand that your relationship with your loved one will change.
• Find out what services are available to help (i.e. support groups).
• Ask for and accept help from family and friends.
• Forgive yourself when things are not the way you would prefer.
• Take time for yourself and your needs.

Caregivers have an incredible burden and loss with which to cope, along with feelings of guilt and loneliness.  However, caregivers will help their loved ones most by taking care of themselves.  The long-term negative health effects of stress have been well-documented, and if you are bedridden, hospitalized, or worse as the result of illness, you can be of little help to your loved one.  It is far kinder to him or her to do all you can to keep yourself well as a caregiver and share some of the caregiving responsibility, than to be ever-present but ineffectual or ill as a result of stress.  

 by Jason Webb

East Central Florida Memory Clinic
3661 S. Babcock Street; Melbourne, FL 32901
Phone (321) 768-9575 Fax (321) 725-1998
info@ecfmdc.org

www.safyou.com