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Avoiding Caregiver Burnout
When a person develops a mental illness, family members and others have the power to influence the recovery process favorably or otherwise, says clinical psychologist and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) researcher Robert Heinssen. "Studies show that the power for good is rooted in taking care of yourself."
While getting enough exercise, sleep and nourishing food is a good idea if you want to maintain health, there's more to self-care when a loved one is sick.
"Most people feel selfish meeting their own needs," Heinssen said, "so, they keep doing and doing, neglecting their own needs, until eventually they burn out. No one benefits, especially not the patient. But 'selfishness' and 'healthy self-interest' are not the same."
Although Heinssen's experience is in treating people with severe mental illness, he said studies show that the importance of meeting one's own needs also applies to loved ones of people suffering from other types of medical conditions.
Dealing with illness and its different stages--whether temporary or long-term, whether the brain is affected or another organ--brings on challenges and pulls on many different emotions, both for the individual and for the family members who are dedicated to caring for them; it's important to know how best to regulate these feelings.
"Significant others can either bolster a person's ability to tolerate the stress of an illness or can contribute to the worsening of symptoms," Heinssen said. "When we don't take care of our own needs, we're more likely to become irritable, short-tempered, judgmental, resentful--which can have a negative impact on the person who's struggling to get better."
Studies show that supportive, flexible and enduring relationships can "facilitate a person's stability and recovery," he said, whereas interactions characterized by "criticism, over-control or rigid expectations can accelerate the process of active symptoms."
Source: National Institute of Mental Health
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