What Should Family Caregivers Focus on During Stress Awareness Month?
It’s impossible to avoid stress. Everything you do in life can lead to stress. Problems arise when stress builds and builds without you finding a way to release it. April is Stress Awareness Month and a good time to look at what the stress of caregiving can do to your health, and how personal care at home can help.
In the U.S., 77% of Americans experience physical symptoms related to excess stress. Three out of ten people feel they deal with extreme stress. Six of the most common causes of that stress are:
- Pressures at work
- Money issues
- Health
- Changes to relationships, such as divorce or death of a spouse
- Poor nutritional intake or diet
- Sleep deprivation
Have you ever stopped to think about how your role as a family caregiver is causing too much stress? Your boss is pressuring you to stop being late or take so much time off. You’re worried about losing income when you have to take an unpaid day off to help your parents.
Maybe you’ve been putting off your yearly doctor’s check-up because you have no time. You eat in a rush and often get fast food or takeout on your way home from your mom and dad’s house. You live with your parents, and their insomnia keeps you up all night so you’re not getting enough sleep.
All of this impacts your mental, physical, and emotional health. It’s time to take care of yourself and learn ways to manage the stress you experience.
Learn Your Stress Triggers
Pay attention to your stress. Do you feel it building or does it hit from out of nowhere? If you’re experiencing stress, it’s important that you learn to read your body and catch the signs of building stress.
You might find yourself tensing up. It’s grocery shopping day, and you find you’re biting your fingernails. That’s a sign of excessive stress. You might notice that a headache builds each morning before you have to help your parents with their showers.
When you begin to narrow down the stress triggers, you can start working on ways to ease the tension. Before you help your parents with their morning routines, do a quick Yoga routine to ease stress and tension. Stop grocery stress by ordering online for pick-up or delivery.
Best of all, learn that you can’t do it all. It’s okay to hire others to take over your parents’ personal care needs.
Don’t Ignore Self-Care
Stress impacts your health in so many ways. You must focus on your well-being, and the best way to do this is by arranging personal care at home. Let others help out so that you can focus on self-care.
It’s time to call. Whether your mom needs Alzheimer’s home care services to help with bathing and toileting or your dad needs ALS home care for grooming and hygiene, support their needs by arranging personal care at home. Talk to a home care expert to get started.
Sources:
https://www.stress.org/about/for-the-media
If you or an aging loved one is considering personal care at home in Leesburg, FL, please contact the caring staff at Golden Heart Senior Care of Clermont today. 1-888-423-4046.