Stress Relief for Carers

No matter how much you care for the person you are caring for, the fact is being a carer is stressful. And stress is damaging in the long term because it can lead to illness, depression and exhaustion. Regardless of how well you cope with your caring role there will inevitably come a time when you experience higher than normal levels of stress.

To enable you to continue your caring role effectively - and to ensure your own health does not suffer - it is important to deal with your stress.

Whether the person you provide care for has a mental or physical disability makes little difference it's the relentlessness of caring that can be so draining.

Causes of carer stress

The cause of your carer stress may be complex. You might be worried about the health of the person you care for, money, the future, or the attitudes of other members of the family. You might feel guilt about the way you feel sometimes.

Stress can strain relations, and it's not just your relationship with the person you are caring for that can be affected. For example, caring for an elderly parent can place enormous strain on a marriage because of the continual stress experienced by the carer and the perceived lack of support from your partner. Isolation and feeling totally unrecognized for your care giving role can all play a part in making you feel worse. Care givers need to maintain connections with other people outside the home.

Feelings common to carers

The responsibilities of caring can lead to frustration and possibly feelings of anger and helplessness. This can be overwhelming. It can be so hard to cope with these feelings as well as having to care for someone. You may also feel guilty for feeling angry towards the person you are caring for.

Symptoms of stress

If you are a carer you may not even have much time to reflect on how you are feeling. Common symptoms of stress include irritability and generally feeling more emotional and perhaps tearful, appetite disturbance, sleep disturbance, more colds than usual, exhaustion, loss of sense of humor and raised blood pressure and also sometimes undiagnosed aches and pains.

You might feel alone, unsupported, pessimistic and overwhelmed as a carer. All these emotions create stress. When your body is stressed you have more stress hormone called cortisol in your body. If levels of cortisol are too high for too long then blood pressure goes up, digestion is suppressed causing stomach problems and sleep is driven out. Stress is not only harmful to your health and well being - it can also damage your relationships-it's vital to identify the causes of stress to tackle them as soon as possible.

The antidote to stress

If you are a carer for someone else then chances are you are neglecting your own needs to some extent. You have needs for:

• Relaxation
• Good quality sleep
• Quality attention from other people
• Feeling safe and secure in life.
• A sense of connection to your community.
• Fun and laughter.
• Purpose and goals to learn new things.
• Intimacy so you can feel properly understood by at least one other person.

Your caring role may prevent you getting some of these needs met. Just like a car needs oil and fuel and water so we all have to have these needs met to function at a best and be happy. Never relaxing is a major health danger. When you relax your stress hormone levels level out, your blood pressure becomes healthier and your immune function works better. And the great thing is that once you've been relaxed you reap the benefit s for many hours after. This session is designed to be an oasis of stress relief for you so that you can recharge your batteries and feel sane again. When you are relaxed you become more optimistic, energetic, healthy and happy.

Listen to this session regularly to relax deeply, recharge your batteries and look after your physical and mental health.

Download Carer Stress Relief now and feel better.