Getting stressed isn't just a state of mind. It can also seriously harm the body.
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24 Comments
Add CommentAs someone who was the sole caregiver for my wife for a year after she contracted ALS, I can provide anecdotal evidence of the above stress effects. Fortunately, after fulfilling my duties, I was able to relax in the redwoods of Mendocino for 8 months and recovered my health. Symptoms which disappeared during this idyll incuded hypertension, pre-diabetic sugar processing symptoms, and severe hay fever symptoms.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have heard this a lot. People say that the caregiver is often the first to go. That is a concern since I have been my mother's caregiver for over five years. She is 86 and I am 56. She is physically strong but has dementia. I have been stressed out since 2000. What can I do to help myself survive this stress before the onset of a devasting disease?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHi Jan,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTell me about it..I will turn 60 and mom 93 this year. I have been not only her sole caregiver (per usual) since 2001. On top of that she was sent to a nursing home who tricked me into letting her stay an "extra month" it ended up being three years, we have been sued for a bill that I thought was paid, since they never said anything. We finally "rescued" her March 18th, 2008. They are trying to separate me from her so they can take her house, though it has no value for them, so the plan is to move me away so that they can "use" that as a means to "put her back in a nursing home" they are fighting me to take her away for money.
and in all that you and I know what we do for our mother's ..I started getting racing thoughts and took myself to the psychiatric ward for evaluation, they said I was "mildly" depressed... SINCE THEN..THE COURT HAS MOCKED MY THERAPY and said statements that show they have no idea what a "caregiver" goes through..as you know our mother's have their good days and their bad days..no matter how much we do for them it is never enough in our eyes, we wish our mother's had the vitality, and strength as we used to know them, mine went blind so it's even harder..thanks for the moment to share
To take care of yourself..do the Yoga, bio-feedback, everything that has to do with relaxation. Do everything you can find out about increasing your immune system..laugh a lot and pray a lot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI cannot take my own advice, with the money going to litigation and maintaining the house and losing my car, I cannot travel far to reasonably priced classes or go to the pool or even buy the high quality food including high ph-water to take cae of myself , I can laugh and I can pray..
Marta Fernandez
As much as the terrible effects stress can inflict on one's health, it's almost impossible to lead a life that is completely stress-free. The very stresses of daily life are enough to kill anyone prematurely! So, I guess our only solution is to adapt to those stresses and learn to relax and face problems that occur in our lives with calm and collective equanimity. I also have anecdotal evidence regarding the health effects of stress. During the last two years when I had to sit very important tests and worry about college applications and deadlines, I suffered very frequently from pain in my chest, left arm and neck, and I'm only 16!!! Doctors told me its because of stress and I should relax. So I began to change the way I see and do everything and to stop worrying about every little thing, and it really seems to have worked. I hardly ever feel the pain anymore! I personally find saying "What's the worst that could happen?", very stress relieving.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am glad I am single. I do not have to worry about having to take care of someone then. I am amazed at the people who have money and the problems they have. There is something better about living a simple life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI worked in an extremely stressful environment in an under-funded Australian university for some years. It was amazing how many staff in our faculty were regular suffers of colds, influenza and the dreaded allergies. After finally succumbing to acute anxiety, I had to stop.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBest decision I ever made. I now work at a major telescope in the US and am gradually recovering in a quiet, remote village.
Lightning
I have suffered from work related stress, job losses, moving several times, a car accident (not my fault), pneumonia, and constant pain due to an injury. I believe some people on the job purposely try to inflict high stress levels on other coworkers to push them out, to create more advantages for themselves. It is good if you can find work that is less stressful. Good luck to you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishow can i make a do-able project out of stress????
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ mistercat, Jan, nystar:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy empathy goes to you all of you, I am a caretaker for my mother, she's 82 and I am 48. My life is on hold. My kids' lives are on hold. It's not my mother's fault by any means. I already suffer from a mental disorder and so every stress little or big makes me worse. I depend on my kids a lot for help with my mother who is really not that bad off - yet. I don't know what I'm going to do when she does need extensive help. I have the medical knowledge and experience to help her but I don't know if I can handle the stress and depression of taking care of my own mother.
I promised her I wouldn't allow her to be put into a convalescent hospital. No matter what I will keep that promise. I don't know how but I won't be able to live with myself if I don't.
The way I relax is by locking myself in the garage where I have an upholstered chair and t.v. set up. Even a Chinese Water Dragon in an aquarium with a fountain running in his cage relaxes me there. I smoke cigarettes and drink coffee (I know I shouldn't) or have a glass of red wine there.
If I don't do this daily for as long as I need to in order to "keep it together" I will completely loose it and end up in the hospital. I experience severe panic attacks with chest pains and pains in my arm (left arm) and have breathing trouble when things are too stressful for me. Because of a chemical imbalance in my brain it takes me much longer to recover from stress than it does most people. That is why I take my "breaks".
Once in a while I have to simply GO. And I'll go anywhere to get away, even just for overnight. Once I faked being too sick to get out of bed just so I could relax. lol. My kids did everything for my mother that she needed and I got some of the rest I needed. It was great!
Take time for yourself. Don't be such a good caregiver that you forget about yourself, otherwise you may end up in a state that you won't be able to take care of anyone at all. Good food, some exercise (and that doesn't mean housework or walking Mom, it's something of your very own!), and a spiritual enrichment like church or zen, or whatever floats your spiritual boat. Balance is good.
Also, I've found acupuncture to be very good for balancing the ying yang thing. If you can find a good one, go for it.
Best wishes to all and their "patients".
@ mistercat, Jan, nystar:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy empathy goes to you all of you, I am a caretaker for my mother, she's 82 and I am 48. My life is on hold. My kids' lives are on hold. It's not my mother's fault by any means. I already suffer from a mental disorder and so every stress little or big makes me worse. I depend on my kids a lot for help with my mother who is really not that bad off - yet. I don't know what I'm going to do when she does need extensive help. I have the medical knowledge and experience to help her but I don't know if I can handle the stress and depression of taking care of my own mother.
I promised her I wouldn't allow her to be put into a convalescent hospital. No matter what I will keep that promise. I don't know how but I won't be able to live with myself if I don't.
The way I relax is by locking myself in the garage where I have an upholstered chair and t.v. set up. Even a Chinese Water Dragon in an aquarium with a fountain running in his cage relaxes me there. I smoke cigarettes and drink coffee (I know I shouldn't) or have a glass of red wine there.
If I don't do this daily for as long as I need to in order to "keep it together" I will completely loose it and end up in the hospital. I experience severe panic attacks with chest pains and pains in my arm (left arm) and have breathing trouble when things are too stressful for me. Because of a chemical imbalance in my brain it takes me much longer to recover from stress than it does most people. That is why I take my "breaks".
Once in a while I have to simply GO. And I'll go anywhere to get away, even just for overnight. Once I faked being too sick to get out of bed just so I could relax. lol. My kids did everything for my mother that she needed and I got some of the rest I needed. It was great!
Take time for yourself. Don't be such a good caregiver that you forget about yourself, otherwise you may end up in a state that you won't be able to take care of anyone at all. Good food, some exercise (and that doesn't mean housework or walking Mom, it's something of your very own!), and a spiritual enrichment like church or zen, or whatever floats your spiritual boat. Balance is good.
Also, I've found acupuncture to be very good for balancing the ying yang thing. If you can find a good one, go for it.
Best wishes to all and their "patients".
During my last year of college, my mother became terminally ill. I was her power of attorney or whatever you call it when you decide about hospice.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisanyways - during that time I grew two significant patches of gray hair.
I can definately understand the care giver issues. My sister has bi-polar and my mom takes care of her now. I have seen her age considerably in the past few years after my sister got divorced and moved in with her. I try to help on occassion and counsel my sister on the benefits of walking, eating right, listening to music and being more active in church. I recently lost my job as well after 13 years with the same company (and achieving VP status). Now I get to follow my own advise. My other sister advised participating in a charity with my new found free time. Best wished to all and stay positive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI teach anatomy and physiology at a college in Canada, and am also a Registered Nurse of 25 years.
During my divorce ( very long and acrimonious), a stressful event, I had a motorcycle accident in which I broke several ribs. The X-rays revealed several spiral fractures, and stress fractures, none of which punctured the pleural cavity.
I knew that I needed an increase in dietary calcium and Vitamin D
( exposure to sunshine is usually sufficient), I also increased my portion of protein to aid in muscule healing.
I noted that the healing of the fractured ribs took a very long time to heal, as evidenced by subsequence X-rays. The duration in my case was about 8 months.
I co-related this observation and feeling (unscientific) to the stress of the divorce and the fact that I was doing everything that I tell my patients to do to help in the healing process.
I tried various relaxation therapies from reframing, arouma therapy, hydro-therapy, rationalization, meditation,prayer,Reikki, chiropractic etc. which eventually did help with the pain and apparent healing.
I do concur with the findings of this essay /article that stress does have a
physical implication to the healing process, although my findings/ experience is a personal and subjective result.
Stress is definitely a BIG part of my life. I am a 6th grade teacher. I come home daily ready to take a nap. My naps usually end up being until the net day.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStress is a big part of my job. I am a 6th grade math teacher. I am also trying to get my masters degree and i have a 7 year old daughter and a 4 year old son. There never seems to b enough time in a day to do all that needs to be done. I also suffer from depression because of an unfortunate insident in my life about 5 years ago. I used to not get sick. Now it seems i am always coming down with something. And when I get it, it hits hard and i will have to miss work for a week or so.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthis site is very helpful for students, as well as for people of different fields
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom my experience exercise is very important for fighting stress and depression it helps you to relax, boosts your immune system and lets you vent your frustrations. The trick for me is to not let my frustrations lead me to overdo it as this can result in me getting sick. I would recommend some form of exercise that gets you out into the fresh air with natural surroundings if possible but that is easy to do i.e. you dont need to drive a distance to get to. Try a walk in the park or get on a mountain bike and do a trail through the park.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom my experience exercise is very important for fighting stress and depression – it helps you to relax, boosts your immune system and lets you vent your frustrations. The trick for me is to not let my frustrations lead me to overdo it as this can result in me getting sick. I would recommend some form of exercise that gets you out into the fresh air with natural surroundings if possible also something that is easy to do i.e. you don’t need to drive a distance to get to. Try a walk in the park or get on a mountain bike and do a trail through the park.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYa, it is very dangerous of stress. If I am stress, I will do dragon meditation. This is very useful to reduce my stress. I am sharing my dragon meditation. You can try the preliminary dragon meditation and download on http://www.mydragontattoo.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is imperative for the caretaker to take care of themselves. There have been many good suggestions on this board. Those constantly under stress will burn out their adrenal glands. Once that happens all kinds of poor health will follow. One good way to modify stress is through diet. There is a soup called Taz which I recommend to my adrenal patients. You can find it here:http://drrosenberg.blogspot.com/2010/05/adrenal-recovery-soup-recipe.html
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou also may want to get tested for adrenal levels. There are several good labs to do this. You just need to find a doctor who works with them. I prefer Neuroscience labs today: http://www.neurorelief.com/index.php?p=testing Test 9128 is my favorite for many people.
From the lab results a custom diet and nutrition plan can be devised even to the time of day you need support the most.
For those of you who take care of their elderly parents, you deserve the highest of respect and blessings. But you also must find a way to take care of yourselves! Take time out and don't feel guilty for doing so. Breathe deeply, meditate or pray, get the right nutrition, and you'll be able to function so much better for everyone who depends upon you.
I've just recently gone through a tough situation with my parents and grandmother. My parents were suffering physically due to the stress of years of caring for both of my grandparents. Reluctantly my mother and father decided to put my grandmother into a home. There were then terrible feelings of guilt and shame. My brother and I both live far from my parents, but we still need to check up and them and counsel them through it. We can't forget about the emotional issues that weigh heavy on us. Care givers also need care as well.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have heard that stress can be very bad in terms of living healthy. It can ruin your whole life if not taken proper care.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have heard that stress can be very bad in terms of living healthy. It can ruin your whole life if not taken proper care.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this