Let’s Talk About Caregiver Burnout
Caregiving is a tough job, as anyone who has helped out a struggling loved one will tell you. Beyond the physical demands of running to the grocery store or lifting your loved one out of a chair, there are the logistic challenges of balancing care, other family roles, professional responsibilities, and personal wellness.
Sometimes it can feel simple—or at least possible—to keep all of these balls in the air. Maybe you’ve had a good week and can effortlessly float from home to work to mom’s house to soccer practice and home again. On the other hand, sometimes keeping everything together feels impossible, exhausting, and depressing. After long periods of high intensity care, this stress can compound into something called caregiver burnout, a profound sense of exhaustion and hopelessness experienced by many people in demanding roles.
This three-part series will explore the symptoms of caregiver burnout, the causes of caregiver burnout, and ways that caregivers can protect themselves from burnout.
Symptoms of Caregiver Burnout
Caregiver burnout is a broad phrase that encompasses any combination of certain symptoms. Broadly, these symptoms will manifest as a persistent sense of sadness, loneliness, or exhaustion. Below are listed a number of specific signs that noticed by many experiencing burnout.
If you are a caregiver and find yourself experiencing one or more of these symptoms, it is possible that you are burnt out or approaching burnt out because of the intensity of your caregiving situation. Take a look through these symptoms and see if any apply to you.
Depression:
In some cases, caregiver burnout can appear as symptoms of depression, including: sadness, hopelessness, emotional exhaustion, inability to enjoy activities previously enjoyed, irritability, and trouble concentrating. Studies show that female caregivers, those caring for a male loved one, those caring for a spouse, and those caring for someone with memory loss are the most at risk for these feelings of depression.
Loneliness or Withdrawal From Social Circles:
Caregivers who experience burnout often feel a profound sense of loneliness. Isolation is a common result of taking on a role that others struggle empathize with, of having less time to spend with those you love, or of other aspects of caregiving. Likewise, many caregivers find it difficult to expend social energy after a long day of caring for a loved one. Because of these factors, caregivers experiencing burnout sometimes find themselves avoiding social situations or feeling disconnected from people they love.
Negative Feelings Towards the Person Being Cared For:
When caregivers experience burnout, they sometimes start to feel anger, ambivalence, or other negative emotions towards those they are caring for. It is important to keep in mind that these negative feelings do not mean a caregiver actually dislikes their loved one. Rather, they have come to associate the difficulty of providing care and the person for whom the care is provided.
Negative Self-Perception:
Sometimes the difficulty caregivers experience with providing care can lead them to feel poorly about themselves. This can manifest itself in feelings of inability or ineffectuality, guilt, body image issues, or the conviction that one is somehow not ‘good enough’ for themselves or those around them.
Feeling a Lack of Control:
As a symptom of burnout, many caregivers feel that they are losing a sense of control in their lives. They might feel angry that they cannot ‘cure’ their loved one of their struggles, a sense of hopelessness that they cannot control their schedule, or anxiety about not being able to accomplish everything they would like.
Changes in Appetite or Sleep:
Caregiver burnout sometimes causes physical symptoms, as well as emotional ones. Burnt out caregivers might experience weight changes as they find themselves eating significantly more or less as stress and burden increases. Similarly, caregivers sometimes report an increased need for sleep or an inability to sleep as a result of their role.
Heart Issues or Hypertension:
Studies have found that caregiving, especially in intensive or high burden situations, can cause health issues like cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Thus, developing or worsening health issues may be a sign of caregiver burnout.
Increased Frequency of Illness:
When caregivers constantly operate at a high rate of stress and exhaustion, it can actually affect their immune system. Thus, the bodies of those experiencing burnout are less able to fight off illness. Because of this, some burnt out caregivers find themselves falling ill more frequently than they did before.
Substance Use or Abuse:
The stress and exhaustion of caregiving can often lead caregivers to use or overuse substances like caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs. A significant increase in consumption might be a sign of burnout.
Generally, if you are feeling physically or emotionally exhausted, you might be approaching burnout. It is usually a gradual process— people rarely wake up one day feeling completely overwhelmed.
Think of the daily challenges as drops falling in to a bucket. If there is no outlet, there will eventually be no more room for water, and the bucket will overflow.
While symptoms of burnout gradually develop, there is no reason that they should go unnoticed for a long time. It is important to check in with our physical and emotional health so that we can catch health challenges like burnout before they progress too far. So take some time this week to ask yourself how you are doing, keeping the symptoms above in mind.
Check It Out
Take a look at the next article in our series, The Causes of Caregiver Burnout.