Life is a lot different after you’re a caregiver. You might feel as if some parts of your life have changed for good.
Going and Doing with Others
Maintaining friendships and other types of relationships is not so difficult when you’ve got extra time to spend. Caregiving demands a lot of your time and your attention, which means that spare time is not necessarily something that you have a lot of at the moment. What you can do is to schedule time with important people in your life and stick to those appointments. Prioritize those connections to maintain them.
Your Self-care Was Probably Better
Self-care is a tough one for a lot of caregivers. When you’re able to spend time and energy on yourself, self-care might be something that you do to pamper yourself or to be self-indulgent. The thing is, you’re able to do that because you also have time for the other forms of self-care, like eating properly and making sure you’re sleeping well. As caregiving demands more of you, you need to be more conscious of basic self-care and how you can fit that into each day.
Feeling Less Anxious
Anxiety is a very real issue for caregivers. You might have a lot more that you’re juggling, not to mention that your senior’s health needs are probably something you worry about. All of that means that you tend to feel on edge, probably a lot more so than you usually have. The more information that you can gather about health issues and anything else that is creating anxiety, the less anxiety you’re likely to experience on a regular basis.
Feeling Like You Had Everything Under Control
Something else you might be missing is that feeling that you’re in charge and that life is going exactly how you expected it to go. Very often as a caregiver, that feeling of being on top of the world is not easy to hang onto. You might feel as if there’s a new crisis every time you turn around and that can wear you down. Plan as much as you can, but remember to leave some room for flexibility. If your plans are too restricting, you might run into trouble there, too.
There’s a bit of grief for you as a caregiver over things you’re missing in your life now, too. You can help your senior to deal with her loss, but you need to deal with yours, too. One way to do that is to make sure that you’re taking care of yourself and that you’ve got the help you need. Elderly care providers can solve problems you didn’t even realize were plaguing you. Their experience is incredibly helpful.
If you or someone you know needs hiring a Caregiver in Marshall, MN, contact Adara Home Health Care. We provide quality and affordable home care services for many fragile or senior members in the communities we serve. Call us at (888) 660-5772 for more information.