Caregiver Burnout?

If accountants don’t grow old but simply lose their balance;and lawyers never grow old, they just lose their appeal; and doctors don’t grow old they just lose their patience; and if old blonds never fade away, they simply dye away then what happens to caregivers? Caregivers don’t grow old, they simply stop caring – and the person they stop caring for is themselves!

I remember and I am sure many of you do too when my definition of burnout was putting my foot to the floor in my dad's car. Oh I remember well the time when burnout meant going fast, laying down rubber, not a care in the world. Those were "the good old days" before life slowed me down and handed me an entirely new definition of burnout - Caregiver Burnout!

You know you have been a caregiver for too long when:

- You take a rare moment to look in the mirror and see Cousin Itt looking back at you.

- Your idea of a catered dinner is the week’s worth of frozen meals delivered to your door.

- You actually find yourself talking to telephone solicitors

- Your idea of a “social life” is Facebook

- You can tell that you’ve been wearing the same pants for too long because when you take them off and they stand up by themselves

- Your old idea of “freshening up” is your new idea of a wash

- You hit so many stops that you find it amazing that you ever thought bumper cars were fun

- Your idea of a picnic is grabbing a burger on the way home from a quick trip to the pharmacy

- Your idea of a shopping spree is hitting the dollar store for more plastic baskets to keep supplies and meds in

- A ten minute shower feels like a day at the beach

- The paramedic asks you, while your husband is in the midst of having a heart attack, if the random, spastic movements in his left arm are normal and you find yourself answering, “Yes.”

- Your idea of a break is sitting on the toilet

- Your idea of a gift is….well, you really don’t have an idea of a gift anymore

- Your home has more medical supplies and aids in it than furniture

- You spend any free time you have sleeping

- It’s dinnertime and you realize you haven’t had breakfast…or lunch

- Your idea of a visitor is the delivery person

- You find yourself trying to put laundry in the dishwasher

- You empty the dishwasher in one go and consider it an accomplishment

- Your idea of gardening is trying to resuscitate the damn plant somebody gave you

- You know that you cannot afford to get sick but you often feel ill at ease

- Getting a good deal on tissues is a win

- The respite worker is your BBF

- The sun hurts your eyes when you take the garbage out

- Your idea of a new outfit is putting on a fresh shirt

- You laugh when someone asks you, “What’s new?”

- You laugh when your loved one is in the hospital, yet again, and someone says, “Now you’ll have a chance to take a break.

- You wonder if a caregiver cries and there is no one there to hear, are you really a tree and if so, who moved the forest

KNOW THIS – YOU ARE NOT ALONE – THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF CAREGIVERS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA AND INDEED THE WORLD - OUR NUMBERS ARE INCREASING DAILY! Who cares? We care! Everyday, 24/7, we care! Reach out and keep reaching until you find people who care that you care! I choose to be invisible no longer, I chose to be seen, I chose to be heard, I chose to be respected, I chose to be valued, I chose to be acknowledged!

I did not chose this role but I can sure chose how I play it! So can you!