Stress is the way our body reacts to things happening around us, and requirements placed on these issues we. When we experience stress, it has a huge impact on our physical and mental well-being.
As anyone who has or is providing care for a loved one with cancer will know the role of a caregiver can be very stressful, especially when the patient has an incurable cancer like mesothelioma. You are dealing with a situation beyond your control.
Trying to balance caregiving responsibilities to daily chores, attend more to the needs of other family members, can be overwhelming for caregivers. Unfortunately, this often results in neglecting their own needs.
Caregivers are becoming more stressed and their health suffers, which often causes exhaustion.
stress leads to burnout
Burnout is a term given to a state of severe and debilitating health caused by physical exhaustion, mental and emotional that has built over a long period of time.
People who have this condition have little or no energy to do what needs to be done and start feeling unable to do anything. This makes them feel hopeless, and they may even feel resentful about the position they are eager to break away completely.
Because burnout built over a long period of time, the warning signs associated with the onset of this condition are often not recognized by the caregiver. mistakenly believe more their feelings of stress are an immediate response to something happening to them or around them at that moment in time.
It is only when they become weak that they are aware of the real pressures of stress.
Although burnout can happen to everyone, it is possible to prevent it from happening to you
warning signs that you should be aware of, including :.
- frequent feelings of irritability
- Lack of living a good day
- Feelings of anger about everything
- frequent sensations poor health
- little or no energy
- Loss of appetite
- Insomnia
- Lack of motivation
- the doubt self
- Feeling a failure
- detachment
- believe life is not worth living
- anger toward those trying to help you
- Using alcohol as a coping mechanism
If you are experiencing one or more of these signs, your body sends you a warning that your health suffers, and leave you know it's time you did something about it.
caregivers should alleviate their stress
The best way to prevent burnout is to know and recognize any stress you feel, and do something to fix it before it too late.
With my own care experience, I understand that it would be impossible to care for a loved one with a terminal illness without experiencing stress at some level. However, there are ways to alleviate stress and each caregiver must find their own way to do this.
During my trip care, I find stress relief by writing my feelings down in my journal. I think that the recognition of my feelings that way helped put a lot of worry from my mind. It eased my stress, allowed me to better cope with the situation, and I'm able to do things that had to be made.
The writing in a journal, however, does not necessarily work for everyone who needs to relieve their stress
Here are other options that may be useful :.
- Force yourself to take a rest every day
- Find ways to express your concerns so that you can stop worrying about the
- Tender hand for the support of family members, friends and public organizations
- delegate some of your caregiving tasks to other family members or friends
- Limit your activities housekeeping to the basics
- Share your feelings with your loved ones, do not try to keep everything in
- Tell your doctor about how you feel
- Eat healthy and try some gentle exercise each day
the best advice I can give to prevent burnout is to listen to your body and be aware of what you said .
when you learn to listen and trust your inner voice, you instinctively know what is necessary to ensure that your body gets the proper attention to stay healthy.
Only when we take care of our own health, can we continue to take care of others.
