Most long-term caregivers experience physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. They feel alone, taken for granted, overworked…but they hang in there because they’re needed. Many times, a spouse feels committed because of their marriage commitment—even when their own health begins to suffer. Helpful resources are available, but often caregivers are too exhausted to recognize their own needs.
We understand caregiving personally, having cared for our aging parents and in walking this journey with others. Over and over again, we see caregivers being so immersed in their loved one’s urgent, relentless, all-consuming needs that they don’t stop to think about their own.
Case in point: one of the stories in our original LWFW manual included this account, from the wife of a husband who had both a terminal illness and dementia:
“I thought I was doing fine. A professional in-home care agency and a nurse friend from church were helping me with caregiving, cleaning the house and doing small things that made life easier. Then my husband fell, and I knew it was time to take him to Health Care. That day I was just so tired. I look back now and realize just how exhausted I’d become.”
So much has already been written about caregiver burnout that we’re going to recommend a few articles with excellent information that can help you.