As a caregiver do you ever feel overwhelmed, stressed, or exhausted?
Often, caregivers spend so much of their day taking care of others that they eventually stop taking care of themselves properly.
It is stressed to family caregivers to take care of themselves, because they won’t be able to take care of others if they are not taking care of themselves. Although this makes sense logically, many caregivers still struggle with self-care. The guilt of putting yourself first, even for an hour a day, can discourage caregivers from continuing the practice of self-care.
When speaking to military service providers at Fort Bliss in Texas, self-care seemed to be a common theme or issue when speaking of caregivers. Watch the video below as Monica Lawson, Licensed Clinical Social Worker from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic in William Beaumont Army Medical Center, shares her thoughts on self-care.
What do you do for self-care?
What suggestions do you have for family caregivers who struggle with self-care?
This MFLN-Military Caregiving concentration blog post was published on November 25, 2016.
