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What can you do to take care of your mental health?
Being a caregiver to someone with ALS or another critical illness a person can become overwhelmed and exhausted quickly.
As a caregiver or a person helping take care of someone with ALS, how do you take care of your mental health?
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9 Replies
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My time to do other things is clearly limited. I have friends from a men’s group that I keep up with. Also I play bass in church every other Sunday giving me time with the friends there every other week. My hobby is RC airplanes. I really enjoy it as it touches a few of my hot buttons, its technical, its mostly outdoors and very social. So I am involved as time permits and have purchased a couple of smaller planes that I can fly around the house. We are getting close to retirement and I have been able to go from working 5 days a week to only working 4 days a week. It also helps knowing my Karen is doing everything she can to prolong her life. She is serous about the limited exercise she can do daily and does several different things to exercise her lungs including sleeping with a non evasive ventilator. The ventilator just about drove both of us crazy at first so it has a 4 letter nick name. We both are ok accepting a constant new normal as thing slowly change. That’s all that comes to mind at the moment.
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Being a caregiver can be overwhelming. It’s so good you’ve found a way to keep doing what interests you and gives you balance.
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It is good to be a stable person.Have good out side help to be stable.It is nice to have a few changes in your week.
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Good advice!
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Not in any particular order: Visits with friends and family; therapy; gardening; writing; making snapfish books of memories; making lists of stuff that needs attention; delegating stuff that needs doing; cranking the tunes; crying/sobbing; watching silly shows; brushing the cat; if I have the luxury of time, taking a walk; playing cards with G. And… obsessing about potential dogs for adoption on Petfinder. I can train a dog; training another guy – nah.
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It sounds like you follow a great self-care routine!
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Being a caregiver for an ALS love one is challenging, heartbreaking and a wonderful feelings. Somedays I’m overwhelmed. And then all is good. We made it through another unexpected challenging day. I schedule time to slip away and get a manicure and pedicure. It does the a world of good to my mind. And too, there’s the family dog, Prissy, that can mellow me out with a look, and me rubbing her back and head. It does me good, and she loves the attention. It’s the little things that gives me peace of mind for that which we cannot change.
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It is so good that you’ve found ways to take care of yourself — yes, days will have ups and downs. Simple things like a manicure (aka., someone else holding YOUR hand) and petting your dog are great suggestions for other caregivers.
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