How to Alzheimer's Caregivers Can Handle Stress

Darby Morhardt instructs Alzheimer's caregivers how to handle the stress they are experiencing.

How to Alzheimer's Caregivers Can Handle Stress Well, disagreements and arguments are a part of life and a part of relationships. And when you have, when you’re caring for somebody who has Alzheimer’s disease, you’re going to be perhaps hearing the same question repeated over and over again. You’re going to—it always that the person is often going to be needing and depending on you for their daily care, their daily needs. They’re going to need over the course of their illness; more and more supervision. This can be extremely stressful on someone who’s caring. The majority of people in our country who are caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease are women. So that and women are also juggling a lot of different things in their lives, family, work, responsibilities. And that can lead to it that can also add the stress that they’re feeling. The stress then can lead to—as much as you understand, you need to understand that this is a disease that the person can’t help it. That they can’t help, that they’re repeating themselves—or that sometimes they can get to a point where they can accuse of doing something that you didn’t do. They can also become upset with you for absolutely no reason, or what appears to be no reason at all. It’s important that as a caregiver, that you recognize this is an illness. This is not the same mother that you had before talking to you. This is your mother who has a brain disease and she can’t help what’s happening to her. So as much as you understand that, that’s the first step is to understand it. But even as much as you do, you still need to get some kind of break from that constant care giving. And then most people who are in this position really find it very, very helpful to get that break by seeking outside help, getting services, getting rep—what we call respite care. And that can be in a form of hiring somebody to come into your home, finding a state subsidized service to come into your home or having that person go to an adult day center. So that you can take a break, you can get a chance to calm down and to rejuvenate, reenergize.