Try: Many caregivers cgs experience negative emotions on a regular basis this can lead to depression or increased depression if it is already exists depression is toxic and can affect the cg cg’s general state of health and emotional well-being one way for the cg to cope with this is to turn negative emotions into positive outcomes and actions ten negative emotions that are typically associated with caregiving anger at the Care recipient (cr) at yourself at other family members at healthcare professionals denial of the disease itself of your need to provide assistance of the loss of the family as it "used to be" fear that you will contract the disease as you get older of your own mortality of the future for yourself and for the Care recipient (cr) guilt for past mistakes for your inability to separate yourself from caregiving in order to enjoy some parts of your life as you used to for anger towards other family members who aren’t helping as you think they should over your inability to provide the care you think the cr needs indecision about financial issues and or end of life matters and planning about medical care about living arrangements overwhelmed with the unfair turn of events your life has taken over the constant care the cr needs by other demands on your time by other family members or your career regret over things that have been said or done in the past that the condition of the cr cannot be mended over things that you wished you had said or done that cannot not be fulfilled over the quality of life that the cr now has helplessness with your inability to make things better for your cr with your inability to please all of the people all of the time regarding your caregiving role in general embarrassment over challenging behaviors exhibited by the cr when out in public over having to cancel personal plans at the last minute due to the condition of the cr over the general condition of the cr now compared to what the cr was previously the cg is no longer able to accomplish and enjoy the same things as before anxiety over balancing cargiving with other responsibilities such as your career family church service organization and so on over the next step in caregiving over the uncertainty of the future over finances over living arrangements over your ability to handle the increased caregiving duties as time goes by cgs may experience these negative emotions at one time or another each of these emotions if dealt with effectively can also bring about a positive outcome the secret lies in learning how to deal with each emotion in a positive way steps that caregivers can take to turn negative emotions into positive outcomes identify your negative emotion and place it into one of the categories above what is this feeling telling you admit to yourself that you have this negative emotion even though doing this may be unpleasant try to identify the meaning or message behind the emotion try to determine if the emotion is real or perceived for example are you feeling guilty for an act that you committed or for an act that you didn’t do or could have done differently what triggered the emotion were you tired or overworked at the time was the cr tired at the time what emotion could you have used to replace the negative one for example could you have changed anger into compassion talk about your feelings openly or write them down expressing your emotions in writing may take some of the sting out of them create a game plan for how you will better deal with these negative emotions in the future what could you differently when you feel this emotion coming on and consuming you consider stepping back and focusing on another activity for a while this may put some distance between you and your emotions and allow you to look at things from a different perspective try to keep things in balance give yourself permission to vent to another individual especially one who is familiar with the cr and the challenges that you are facing however do so in a positive rather than a negative way talking things out with another caregiver or individual can be helpful and therapeutic for you you may just need to blow off some steam first before you can move forward and deal with the problem sometimes you just need to get things off of your chest it is sometimes helpful to know that other individuals have experienced the same emotions in caregiving and have dealt with them in a positive way brainstorming ideas with others may provide you with some good ideas on how you can do the same do not let the cr’s negative emotions be reflected in you while you may not be able to change a negative emotion in the cr you don’t have to assume it as your own avoid toxic people if at all possible these individuals have a negative outlook about everything and life in general in addition many of these individuals continuously tell everyone about what what’s wrong with everything and how miserable they are it is best to avoid them or get away from them as often as possible be comfortable with your limits and your capabilities doing the best you can do is all that anyone especially yourself can expect you are probably doing a job that many other people refuse to do or incapable of doing if you are doing a good job of caregiving give yourself credit for it an emotionally healthy perspective on caregiving may be to do the best job you can with the things that you have control over you need to let go of all of the negative emotions associated with things that you have no control of no amount of negative emotion is going to make a positive difference anyway just let go of it information references adapted from www caregiversupport org emotions and caregiving overcoming negative emotions by a brandt phd

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Categories: Caregiver Needs&Support, Cognitive Intellectual, Emotional Psychological

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*This information is listed as a Fact Sheet and is not explicitly medically licensed