Caregiver burnout: Study finds the key is managing your own emotions
Picture this: you spend countless hours racking your brain for ways to care for your loved one. You want them to be happy, safe, and comfortable, but they continue to become confused, scared, or frustrated.
Sometimes, they take those frustrations out on you even though you only want to find the best way to care for them. Eventually, you feel lost and overwhelmed by your responsibilities and can’t figure out what step to take next.
It’s probably not difficult to picture because this scenario is one so many caregivers find themselves in. Most caregivers in this situation focus on how their loved one feels. However, a 2018 study revealed it is better to flip that script and focus on yourself.
In 2018, a study of people caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s Disease broke coping methods down into three main categories:
Emotional-focused coping
Problem-focused coping
Dysfunctional coping
Strategies for reducing caregiver stress and burnout
In summary, they found that one of the best ways a caregiver can prevent burnout, increase their own quality of life, AND improve outcomes for their loved one, was to pay attention to their own emotions. That’s a pretty big deal for the caregiving community.
Imagine treating your own emotions as if they were the most important component of caregiving for both you and your loved one.
Considering this, it may be difficult to wrap your mind around especially when you’re intensely focused on caring for someone else. It might seem like focusing on your own emotions when the person you love is suffering from Dementia or Alzheimer’s would be a waste of time and energy, right? Maybe it’s time to re-think that.
Three types of caregiver coping categories
Next, let’s look at the three different coping strategies defined in Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in greater depth to help us understand what the outcomes of each can look like in our own lives. Think of this as the cliff notes version.
Utilizing the best coping methods
1. Emotional-focused coping is the practice of managing your emotional responses to stress.
These strategies include meditating, getting emotional support from a therapist or a support group, finding humor in situations, and learning to see unfavorable circumstances positively.
Caregivers who practice these types of emotional care show a significant decrease in stress, anxiety, and even depression. They report fewer behavioral and psychological symptoms and better blood pressure. Most importantly, though, they also recorded better care outcomes for their loved ones.
The study shows the opposite is true—people with negative emotional coping strategies experienced increased cumulative health risks and the likelihood of weight gain.
2. Problem-focused coping involves taking practical steps to remove or reduce stressors.
It’s a lot easier to convince caregivers to practice problem-focused coping skills. On paper, these look like they’d be more effective than dealing with emotional care. The good news is, these are important, too. Remember, these efforts pay off more when paired with the healthy emotional-focused coping skills we’ve discussed.
Problem-focused strategies include keeping an organized calendar, developing healthy routines, making checklists to accomplish tasks, researching, and calling on others to get practical support.
Taking part in these strategies also reduces burden, anxiety, depression, and perceived stress. It increases the caregiver’s sense of control and directly correlates to better care outcomes for loved ones (even slowed Dementia progression).
3. Dysfunctional coping is disengaging from the stressful situation or emotions at hand.
“Dysfunctional” sounds like the most negative and non-productive option of the three, and in many ways, it is. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t slip into dysfunctional coping from time to time. This is all part of the human experience.
Dysfunctional coping looks like denial, avoidance, distracting yourself from important tasks/emotions, criticizing or blaming yourself, substance abuse, or venting frustrations or negative feelings on someone else.
According to the study, strategies in this category resulted in higher stress and increased burden on caregivers. In other words, these things make you feel good in the moment but don’t help you achieve better personal outcomes or outcomes for your loved one in the long run.
Big disclaimer here: We believe there are ways to make “dysfunctional strategies” more functional. For instance, venting your frustrations to a therapist or someone you trust in a safe and healthy environment can turn this behavior from dysfunctional to emotional-focused.
Implementing emotional-focused coping in your life
A lot of people have a tough time intentionally caring for their emotions. Throw in the stressful job of being a caregiver, and it becomes even more challenging. We encourage people to take small steps. Try to implement one new strategy or habit at a time and give yourself plenty of grace if you struggle to make those habits stick. Even the simple act of paying attention to your emotions is a big step in the right direction.
Emotional-focused coping will look different for everyone. Exercises that are calming and grounding for one person may be anxiety-inducing for the next. That’s why our advocates use your specific caregiving style to inform how they support you along your journey.
What is a caregiving style?
We’ve developed an intuitive assessment that helps determine your unique caregiving style based on your preferences and personality. You may be a Fierce Caregiver, Kind Caregiver, Sacrificial Caregiver, or any of the nine distinct styles we’ve created from our psychology-based research.
Join Steadii for free today to find your unique caregiving style and discover how you can give from a place of wholeness even on your toughest of days.
If you have questions about Steadii or how we can help you along your caregiving journey, please contact us at howdii@steadii.com. We’d love to get to know you.