Theraverse
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August 29, 2024
Caregiver Burnout
Behind every neatly dressed child at school is a mother who frantically got them ready amidst the whistling cookers and over boiling milk, behind every student who scores well in the exam is a teacher who stayed up late to make lesson plans and revision tests, behind every sick husband cozying up with a bowl of soup is his partner, who woke up early to make it.
Caregiving is one of the most selfless roles someone can take on. Whether it’s caring for an aging parent, a sick child, or a loved one with special needs, caregivers dedicate their time and energy to ensuring others are supported and cared for. But caregiving isn’t just about the daily tasks—it’s about compassion, patience, and the emotional connection that grows through the process.
But when something glorified as selfless is overdone to the point of burnout, the empathy and compassion take up the shape of anger, frustration and exhaustion. Burnout can be defined as a cycle of negative emotions and withdrawal that result from investing too much into something emotionally, intellectually or physically, without doing anything to restore yourself. Playing the role of a caregiver for too long can make self-care a foreign guilty pleasure, that cannot be indulged in, unless as a reward.
“Burnout exists because we have made rest a reward rather than a right.” -Juliet C. Obodo
Compassion Fatigue
You may have watched movies where you felt the need to skip through certain sad, or uncomfortable scenes where the protagonist is getting beaten up, robbed, cheated on, abused or murdered. We look away for a while or at our phones as the lead actor suffers for too long to the point where its exhausting as an audience to even partake as a viewer. And this is a minor version of what we call compassion fatigue, it’s also known as the negative cost of caring.
Compassion fatigue is a form of traumatic stress resulting from repeated exposure to traumatized individuals or aversive details of traumatic events while working in a helping or protecting profession or environment. This indirect form of trauma exposure differs from experiencing trauma oneself but is still enough to amount to secondary trauma stress (STS).
Compassion fatigue occurs when a caregiver takes on the emotional stress and trauma of a person within their care. It causes a lack of empathy for the person within your care. Compassion fatigue and caregiver burnout can happen at the same time.
Now that we have a rough understanding of what caregiver burnout is, we can delve into the 6 self-care tips to keep ourselves in check to avoid burnout
1. The self-care formula of addition and subtraction
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- Imagine your life as a huge table in front of you and now imagine it being filled with everything that is going on in your life. Watch your responsibilities, memories, commitments, relationships and aspirations pile on top of each other about to topple over. Sure, selfcare can be adding feel-good things like a vacation or a spa day to the table but it can also be the subtraction of certain elements like delegating work instead of doing it all on your own. Learn to declutter your table of life.
2. Have a solid bedtime routine and a peaceful morning routine.
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- Build a good sleep hygiene for yourself. By that I mean you could go to bed consistently at the same time every day, have a night routine like brushing, skincare, dimming lights, gadgets off 30 minutes before bed and so. Similarly focus on having a relatively peaceful morning routine, where you at least get 10-15 minutes for yourself, for example by doing meditation/yoga or sitting down to savor your morning cup of tea.
3. Breathing and grounding exercise to take breaks during the day
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- There are several mindfulness and breathing activities available online, find the one that works best for you and incorporate that in your day to actively take micro breaks. For eg. The 54321-grounding technique is a mindfulness exercise that can help reduce anxiety and manage stress. It involves using your senses to identify five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.
4. Curate your Glimmer list!
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- Come up with a list of little things that bring you joy. It can be something really small like painting your nails or listening to music but these so-called inconspicuous things that barely take any effort to do, may make you feel short fleeting moments of joy called glimmers. By making a list you become more aware of the things that make you smile and this list also serves you as a database to go back to, when you want to do something to feel good.
5. If you can’t do anything about it, give yourself permission to let it go.
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- Sometimes, letting go can be the hardest thing to do, we might’ve gotten so used to being in control that we spiral during times of uncertainty. When there is a crisis its important to think of the aspects that are in our control, but after we have done our part we might still be holding onto the anxiety about the aspects that are beyond our control, in those cases, practice giving yourself permission to let things go.
6. Gratitude journaling
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- Ending the day by journaling or sharing with your loved ones about the 3 things that you were grateful for in the day, allows you to recollect and remember the good moments even of they were as petty as getting a 10% off on a Swiggy order. Besides, remembering pleasant experiences right before bed can prime our minds to have a relaxed sleep, as opposed going to bed with distressing and anxious thoughts.
By,
Jensita Grace, In-house Psychologist
Talk Therapy Clinic, Kilpauk
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Resources:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9225-caregiver-burnout
https://www.my-robin.com/resources/resilience/the-tired-teacher-addressing-burnout-in-a-caregiving-profession/
https://www.my-robin.com/resources/resilience/the-top-ten-self-care-tips-for-educators/?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=2&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–IaWy_XStcd2aBQXXmlQCu-JTmPz6MkC_msCuP9y_b1LaQDl_I_vQpfsVvWkapE0uZhBDmYQErZJ2Vac-F-n6vovI6gg&utm_content=2&utm_source=hs_email
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_fatigue
https://www.premierece.com/blog/5-stages-of-compassion-fatigue-for-teachers/
