What Helped Me with the Caregiver Stress and Burn Out

by Judy Leeson
(Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)

I recently told the story of my care giver and burn out stress while fighting with my ex in court and looking after my parents, and watching my father die from Alzheimer’s. During that time I was seeing a therapist and still am, while learning to help myself also.

Here are the techniques that I had found that really worked well for me.

I do a lot of resting, while listening to quite music. Meditation or quiet nature music works well for me but use whatever you personally enjoy listening to, as long as it is soft relaxing music.

I also have been doing a lot of journaling in the morning or when I am feeling very stressed out. Getting my feelings out from heart on to paper helps a lot to release the stress I feel. And no one reads it anyhow so I feel the freedom to write who or what I am feeling at that time, so release any emotions.

I have also increased my sleep, even if the sun is not quite down yet it does not matter to me, because my body needs to rest and I am giving myself permission to rest my body.

I also have cut back on the tea that I drink. While I used to have 2 cups of tea in the morning, I now only have one and the rest of the day I only drink water now.

I have been watching movies that make me have a really good cry, a deep down in my soul cry. Then I will watch really funny movies that will make me roll on the floor laughing so hard my stomach will hurt. But all these techniques have been useful to release my stress and lower it down a lot.

I was diagnosed with diabetes and almost had to go on insulin but, using these techniques, after two years and with diet changes as well I am no longer on meds and showing no signs of diabetes. They are talking about lowering my high blood pressure pills as well. So if you really want to relieve your stress level it can be done. It is not easy and it takes dedication and a lot of work and mind set to do it but I have proven it for myself. And even my therapist can't believe how well the progress is going for me and how quickly, I am responding to treatment.

I can only hope that others will try to use some or all the techniques that have helped me or find ones that they could incorporate into their own lives, to reduce the stress that they are feeling.

Thank you for reading this testimony on the journey that I have been on and my slow recovery back to being healthy again. I am still a work in progress, but I am better than I was before.