What Should You Do if You're Feeling Overly Stressed?

Elderly Care in East Brunswick NJ

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed as a family caregiver isn’t a good feeling at all. It tends to make every task more difficult. Worse yet, you may find yourself staring at a to do list with no idea what to tackle next. Instead of feeling frozen, try one of these ideas.

Talk to Someone and Get Help

The very first step that you need to take is to talk to someone about how you’re feeling. This could be your doctor, your loved one’s doctor, or even another family member. Someone needs to know that you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed. These people may offer to help or you might need to ask outright. If they’re in a similar boat in terms of stress and being overwhelmed themselves, look into hiring experienced elderly care providers to give you a break.

Stick with Your Care Plans Unless a Change Would Help

Sometimes family caregivers think that making a change right away can help with the stress and the overwhelm. Unfortunately, that can simply serve to make the situation worse. Instead, stick with the care plan that your loved one is already used to. That helps to keep him in a state of equilibrium even if you’re feeling off balance. There’s no reason that everyone should feel uncertain.

Look at Your Self-care Plans

Take a solid look at your own plans for self-care. Do you have any? Sometimes that’s a big part of the problem right there. If you’re not exercising, eating right, sleeping well, or otherwise putting your own care as a priority, you’re going to feel the effects. Sit down right now and work out what you can do to help yourself have a better self-care plan.

Follow Through on Changes that Will Help

Once you determine that there are changes that will help, such as having elderly care providers in once a week or talking with a counselor regularly, make sure that you follow through on those changes to keep them on the calendar. Talk with your loved one about the changes to make sure that they’re something that works for him as well.
Periodically, you may need to monitor and adjust to make sure that your changes still feel good for everyone involved.

If you or an aging loved one are considering elderly care in East Brunswick, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Care Street Home Care of New Brunswick today. Call (732) 607-8870.