Caregiving can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also shrink your world down to just you and your care recipient. When that happens, you're at greater risk of burning out and you need to find a way to get out of that rut.Burnout Often Happens Because of Isolation
One big reason that caregivers find themselves dealing with burnout is that they're isolated in their caregiving situation. Take an objective look at your life right now. It's highly likely that your biggest interactions are with your care recipient and people who are central to that relationship. It's time to branch out some more.
You're Also Hyper Focused
When you're really focused on caring for your aging adult, you're not leaving much room for anything else in your life. That kind of deep focus can help you in the shorter term to take great care of your elderly family member, but it leaves you with too little time and energy to focus on much of anything else. You have to give yourself the opportunity to do other things.
Seek out Positive Interactions with Other People
Dwelling on negativity or negative situations is not going to help your mindset, unfortunately. If you're feeling as if the situation with your senior is getting too negative or her own attitude is consistently negative, you may need to step away for more frequent breaks. Consider hiring elder care providers for respite or ask family members if they can step in more often. You need to be able to add some positivity to your own life in order to balance out the negatives.
Connect with Your Community
You might feel as if you're already doing quite a bit for someone else and the truth is that you are. But finding other ways to connect and to give in your community as a whole can help to fill you up with energy that changes your perspective on caregiving again. Find a group or agency that you care about and find ways to volunteer with them.
Stepping outside of yourself and your current comfort zone can do so much good for you as a caregiver and as a human being.
IF YOU OR AN AGING LOVED-ONE ARE CONSIDERING IN-HOME CAREGIVERS IN OAK PARK, IL, PLEASE CONTACT THE CARING STAFF AT BRIGHTSTAR CARE OF LA GRANGE. CALL TODAY 708-551-2500.