By Carol Crimi

1. Educate Yourself about the Care Receiver’s Disease

• Search out sources of information about specific diseases such as your physician, medical libraries, the Internet, other caregivers, and associations related to specific diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
• Set realistic expectations for both yourself and the care receiver based on your understanding of the disease.

2. Practice Self-Care

• To avoid “burn out,” add guilt-free breaks from caregiving to the top of your scheduled list of things to do and take them.
• Attend to your own health-care needs, i.e., exercise, eat right, get enough sleep, avoid use of alcohol and pills as aids to reducing stress.
• Keep your sense of humor.
• Participate in activities you enjoy.
• Reward yourself.

3. Learn to Let Go

• Simplify your lifestyle to conserve your time and energy for what’s most important.
• Accept that you may not be able to do things the way you used to, i.e.,housekeeping, meal preparation.

4. Practice Stress-Reduction Techniques such as:

• Deep breathing
• Progressive relaxation
• Guided imagery
• Meditation

5. Ask for Help

• Present family and friends with both task-specific and time-specific ways in which they can assist you.
• Explore available community resources.

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This article was originally published in Caring Today magazine. Reprinted with permission from Caring Today magazine.

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