Top Signs of Caregiver Burnout and How to Prevent It
An estimated 53 million adults in the United States are informal caregivers who voluntarily provide essential support to friends or family members in need. It's a valuable and selfless role that often requires you to balance your duty to your loved one with your personal and professional obligations. Physical, mental, and emotional challenges often arise and can lead to burnout if they aren't managed. Of the 53 million unpaid caregivers, 36% reported experiencing caregiver burnout in 2020.
If you're the primary caregiver to a loved one, we encourage you to consider your needs and take measures to prevent burnout so you can continue providing a noble service to someone who relies on you. To that end, we at Visiting Angels of Western North Carolina in Asheville have created this guide to support your effort to achieve the perfect balance.
What Is Caregiver Burnout?
Caregiver burnout is the state of being physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted because of your duty to another person's well-being. There are a variety of causes of caregiver burnout. If you're caring for a parent or spouse, it's due to the change in relation from a loved one to a care provider, which can be uncomfortable or confusing. It could also stem from the frustrations of lacking the time, help, support, or respite to thrive. Alternatively, it could relate to the sense that you're not having the desired impact on a loved one's health.
What Are the Top 5 Signs of Caregiver Burnout?
If you experience burnout, you may exhibit a wide range of physical, mental, and emotional signs. Preventing burnout relies on being self-aware and identifying the sensations, thoughts, and feelings that indicate you're nearing a point of exhaustion. Below are the top five signs of caregiver burnout to watch for.
Anxiety
Anxiety is an intense feeling of fear or worry. Often, it presents as a rapid heart rate, muscle tightness, and panic. If you're experiencing burnout, there are a variety of possible causes of anxiety: uncertainty about financial resources, concern for your loved one's well-being, or unease about your duty as a caregiver.
Fatigue
Burnout is a physically tiring state. The longer it goes on, the less capable you may feel of performing the duties of your role. You may even have difficulty getting out of bed or managing daily activities.
A Feeling of Helplessness
Because burnout often occurs when things don't seem to be going right, it can trick you into believing that's how it will always be. If you have limited support, that helplessness can be especially challenging to overcome.
Withdrawal From Friends, Family, and Interests
You can think of burnout as a loss of motivation that extends to other areas of life. The exhaustion that you feel is challenging to overcome, even when you're interacting with loved ones or participating in activities that you previously enjoyed. Even the pleasantest of situations require some degree of effort, but burnout leaves effort in short supply.
Changes in Appetite and Sleep Patterns
Burnout originates from stress, and stress affects both how much we eat and how much we sleep. Increases in stress might encourage us to seek more of the instant gratification that food provides, or it can keep us from craving food at all. At the same time, stress can take over our thoughts and prevent us from achieving a state of rest.
What Are the 5 Ways To Prevent Caregiver Burnout?
When you recognize the signs brewing within you, the best course of action is to address them directly so you can keep the burnout from taking hold. Follow the five strategies described below to prevent caregiver burnout.
Acknowledge the Limits of Your Role
As a family caregiver, you've taken on the admirable position of helping a loved one achieve a higher quality of life. But a higher quality of life isn't the same as a life free of challenges. Both you and your loved one may face difficulties in your care relationship, and that's okay. Your role is to help, not heal. Keeping that in mind can go a long way toward creating more manageable expectations for yourself.
Look Into Family and Medical Leave
If you are a family caregiver who works full time, you might consider looking into the possibility of family and medical leave, which provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid and job-protected leave every year. If you qualify for leave, it can help relieve the stress of balancing your caregiving duties with your professional responsibilities.
Seek Support with Our Respite Care Services
Though your role is to support a loved one, you could also benefit from the support of others. If possible, enlist the help of friends and family members to help with caregiving duties. Alternatively, you might look into professional in-home care agencies, like Visiting Angels, which offer respite care specifically to help family caregivers to rest and rejuvenate.
Practice Self-Care
Self-care is about prioritizing your wellness when necessary. Everyone has a different way of practicing, but we recommend you include some key factors in your self-care routine: rest, nutrition, and overall well-being. Strive for a healthy sleep schedule, eat regularly and well, and do things that improve your health, such as working out and making it to your doctor's appointments.
Take the Time To Enjoy Yourself
Self-care isn't the same as self-indulgence, but that's not to say some indulgence isn't necessary. We highly recommend that you commit yourself to taking the time to regularly do the things that you enjoy, whether that's reading a book, watching television, fulfilling a hobby, or socializing with friends. There's no better reminder that life is good than the good things in life.
Reach Out to Visiting Angels of Western North Carolina for Support
Being a family caregiver, you've already demonstrated that you have the strength and resilience to help another person. We think that you should also allow goodness for yourself. We at Visiting Angels of Western North Carolina in Asheville can help you do that. We provide an array of home care services that are personalized to the needs of the individual, including respite care for family caregivers. We can help provide care for your loved one from 6 hours a week to 24/7 in-home care.
If you feel that you can benefit from our services, we welcome you to reach out. Call or text us at 828-665-3944 or submit an online inquiry today. We're proud to serve families in the Asheville and greater Western North Carolina area and look forward to helping you in any way that we can.