{"id":6263,"date":"2024-05-16T15:00:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T15:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=6263"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:24:45","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T15:24:45","slug":"how-to-care-for-yourself-as-a-caregiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=6263","title":{"rendered":"How to Care for Yourself as a Caregiver"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Forget yoga or weekend escapes. There are more realistic tools to put in place, experts say.<\/p>\n

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Once a quarter, Bich Le, 52, travels from her home outside of Minneapolis to St. Augustine, Fla., where she moves into her father\u2019s guest room for three weeks.<\/p>\n

The health care executive is one of five siblings who take turns caring for their widowed 90-year-old father, who has lung cancer and requires constant assistance. While she\u2019s in Florida this month, she will miss her daughter\u2019s final high school prom; she missed it last year, too, due to her caregiving duties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The drugs Ms. Le\u2019s father takes to manage pain can \u201cnegatively impact how he treats people,\u201d she said. When he becomes volatile, Ms. Le said, she mostly tries to ignore it and \u201cnot add to the stress of the situation.\u201d She tells herself to \u201cjust care for him and just let it go.\u201d But sometimes, when she\u2019s exhausted, his temper grates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat runs through my brain is: \u2018A simple thank you would really go a long way,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018You have me, or you have a nursing home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Caregiving can be fraught for the estimated 53 million Americans who assist family members and friends. And factors like financial strain and isolation can add to psychological distress. In a 2017 survey of 1,081 caregivers conducted by AARP<\/a>, 51 percent of respondents reported feeling worried or stressed. But there was a surprising upside: The majority \u2014 91 percent \u2014 also reported feeling pleased that they were able to help.<\/p>\n

How can caregivers hold on to that feeling amid the stress, fatigue and resentment<\/a> that also come with the role? There are strategies for feeling \u201cless burdened or stressed by the daily problems\u201d they encounter, said William Haley, a professor of aging studies at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n

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Forget yoga or weekend escapes. There are more realistic tools to put in place, experts say.Once a quarter, Bich Le, 52, travels from her home outside of Minneapolis to St. Augustine, Fla., where she moves into her father\u2019s guest room for three weeks.The health care executive is one of five siblings who take turns caring for their widowed 90-year-old father, who has lung cancer and requires constant assistance. While she\u2019s in Florida this month, she will miss her daughter\u2019s final high school prom; she missed it last year, too, due to her caregiving duties.The drugs Ms. Le\u2019s father takes to manage pain can \u201cnegatively impact how he treats people,\u201d she said. When he becomes volatile, Ms. Le said, she mostly tries to ignore it and \u201cnot add to the stress of the situation.\u201d She tells herself to \u201cjust care for him and just let it go.\u201d But sometimes, when she\u2019s exhausted, his temper grates.\u201cWhat runs through my brain is: \u2018A simple thank you would really go a long way,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018You have me, or you have a nursing home.\u2019\u201dCaregiving can be fraught for the estimated 53 million Americans who assist family members and friends. And factors like financial strain and isolation can add to psychological distress. In a 2017 survey of 1,081 caregivers conducted by AARP, 51 percent of respondents reported feeling worried or stressed. But there was a surprising upside: The majority \u2014 91 percent \u2014 also reported feeling pleased that they were able to help.How can caregivers hold on to that feeling amid the stress, fatigue and resentment that also come with the role? There are strategies for feeling \u201cless burdened or stressed by the daily problems\u201d they encounter, said William Haley, a professor of aging studies at the University of South Florida.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6265,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6263"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6266,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6263\/revisions\/6266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}