Columbia Aged Care Services

Caring for elderly spouse presents difficult challenges. It is extremely important to ensure your loved one is properly cared for, but it is equally important to look after yourself.

Looking after a loved one is a stressful and strenuous process and sometimes it can all become too much. It is important to constantly evaluate your situation and assess if the current situation is best for the both of you. Care giver stress have provided some hints to help you gauge if spousal caregiving has become too risky for you:

• Missing or delaying your own doctor appointments
• Ignoring your own health problems or symptoms
• Not eating a healthy diet for lack of time Overusing tobacco and alcohol when you feel stressed
• Giving up exercise habits for lack of time
• Losing sleep Losing connections with friends for lack of time to socialize
• Bottling up feelings of anger and frustration and then being surprised by angry, even violent, outbursts directed at your spouse, other family members, co-workers – even strangers
• Feeling sad, down, depressed or hopeless
• Loss of energy
• Lacking interest in things that used to give you (and your spouse) pleasure
• Feeling resentful toward your spouse
• Blaming your spouse for the situation
• Feeling that people ask more of you than they should
• Feeling like caregiving has affected family relationships in a negative way
• Feeling annoyed by other family members who don’t help out or who criticize your care

If you are experiencing a number of these signs, it is important to get support. Sometimes even the most resourceful person needs to ask for help from other family members or outside professionals or sources. It is important to take care of yourself, while taking care of someone else.