How to Cope with Difficult Emotions while Caregiving

A wide spectrum of feelings will materialize when you care for a person 24/7. Caring for a loved one who suffers from a type of incurable disease, like Alzheimer’s, is nerve-wracking. For a short period of time you may experience a lot of “negative” feelings.

If you don’t learn to cope with these feelings and emotions, you won’t be able to be an effective caregiver to your aging parent. Ignoring your feelings may trigger coping problems, stress, insomnia, illness, and more. The moment you accept ALL your feelings, you will be able to find sensible ways to deal and express them so that you can give care with the compassion needed.

Ambivalence is an incredibly puzzling type of feeling or emotion. It can be scary and may have ill-effects if you don’t control it. Ambivalence refers to things we want to do and don’t want to do. As a loving, responsible child, you want to be a caregiver to your aging parent. But at the same time, you don’t. You want to help them out, but then you think that it’s a huge responsibility – what if you snap? How do you cope with ambivalence? First of all, take all the time you need to understand both sides of this feeling. Don’t make a rushed decision and ask for guidance from an expert if you feel overwhelmed.

It’s natural to lose your temper every now and then. As humans, we all have triggers that make us snap, give up, burst into tears and become extremely emotional. As a caregiver, you will have to learn to cope with anger. Together with frustration, these two can have a destructive effect. Caring for a loved one who suffers from dementia is particularly tough. It gets even tougher when the care receiver becomes combative and irrational. The key is to forgive your anger. Look for constructive ways to deal with it, walk away and allow yourself some time to breathe. Search for support from peers and other caregivers and talk to them. Tell them your concerns and listen to their advice.

Dementia is the kind of disease that instills panic. What if you take your eyes off the patient for 5 seconds and something happens? What if something goes wrong? The job of a caregiver requires taking a lot of responsibility. However, doubting yourself and your abilities all the time won’t make you feel any better. Rather than constantly believe that at some point something might go wrong, you should maintain a sense of realism. Always have a caregiver substitute if you have to go somewhere, and in case of a medical emergency, keep your calm and ask for help. There are solutions to unexpected scenarios, but you must remain calm and balanced.

Caregiving is not an easy job to do, and some people just can’t cope with that amount of pressure. What do you do if you can’t look after an aging parent on your own? Nursing homes may be a safer alternative to home care because they are equipped with everything necessary to make your senior parent feel comfortable and at peace.