It's so easy for someone to tell you to "reach out! ask for help!" but it's so much more complicated than that. There are lots of reasons to go to therapy. It's not about "needing" therapy, it's about deciding to make changes and improve your life. Therapy is a tool...
We love the work Kate Milliken did with MyCounterpane. Here's a really honest, wonderful interview she did with Kysa Kelleher about meeting, marrying, and raising six kids with a husband who has MS. [video width="640" height="360"...
I hear a lot of comments about how their other relatives refuse to help with caregiving, so it all falls on them. Sometimes the reasons for this unfortunate family dynamic are not a mystery. https://twitter.com/RandBallsStu/status/1003817212283686914 I'm going to bet...
Are you ready to share your experience of taking care of someone? Have you been thinking about starting your own caregiving blog? Here's how to do it! The right way to start a blog Most people who want to start a blog are thinking of more than just sharing their words...
I've long been a fan of Heather Havrilesky, so when I saw her interview Melissa Broder, the woman behind the formerly anonymous Twitter account, @sosadtoday, I knew it would be good. https://twitter.com/sosadtoday/status/1026650396662661120 I had no idea Melissa was a...
During my time with The Caregiver Space, I've continually tried to go more with less. When I couldn't keep up with the sheer number of hours I was putting in, we brought in more volunteers, more interns, more part-time staff. While we managed to do way more stuff with...
No one needs to tell you how incredibly frustrating caregiving can be. So many of the most frustrating things in life -- automated phone systems, insurance billing errors, incomprehensible tax requirements -- happen in the middle of terrifying life-and-death...
Obviously here at The Caregiver Space we're big fans of online support groups. It can be an incredible challenge to find time to do anything for yourself, never mind be able to actually leave the house at the same time each week. I go and it's helpful If you know you...
Today Wiley Research made an interesting announcement about the importance of getting out of the house: In a Journal of the American Geriatrics Society study of community-dwelling individuals aged 70 to 90 years who were participating in the Jerusalem Longitudinal...
I hear it all the time: only another caregiver can understand. I asked members of our community for some of the things they wished people who've never been a caregiver could understand about the experience. Omg...people have NO idea what it's like to be a caregiver...
The most common term for discussing the difficulties that come with supporting a loved one through a health crisis, long-term illness, or disability is "caregiver burden." While it's a succinct way to sum up the challenges of caregiving, of which there are many, it...
We talk a lot about how fulfilling it can be to support a loved on, but we also discuss how difficult caregiving can be. Is caregiving something we're doing out of a sense of obligation and duty, out of love for our caree, or a mix of both? Caregiving is an obligation...
A few weeks ago we were talking about how we became caregivers on the Facebook page. I was surprised by how many professional caregivers said they didn't have a choice in the matter, it just happened. I was also surprised by how many parents and spouses said they...
We know that an easy life doesn't necessarily make for a good life. People who feel that their life has meaning tend to be more fulfilled overall, even if their life is incredibly challenging. Different people are driven by different things. Here's a quick quiz you...
When people talk about overcoming disease or disability to live an incredible life, so often the caregivers are left out of the story. Many caregivers don't identify as caregivers -- we're so absorbed in the needs of whoever we're caring for, we forget what it's like...
You've heard the term "caregiver burden", right? It's the stress and strain that comes with caring for someone who is ill, elderly, or disabled. Lots of people don't really like it, since it can easily seem like the person you're caring for is a burden. I was thinking...
A few weeks ago we were talking about how we became caregivers on the Facebook page. I was surprised by how many professional caregivers said they didn't have a choice in the matter, it just happened. I was also surprised by how many parents and spouses said they...
Becoming a caregiver just happened I was 23, had a five year old and a 2 month old. My mother was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, and her "husband" decided he didn't want to clean up crap, and I was already an "expert". Sadly, she passed away 2 months later, and...
There's a lot of advice on how to care for someone with Alzheimer's without, well, losing your mind. Not a lot of it works. I was a very earnest child. My poor parents had to deal with me taking things very literally. I still want to correct every mistake and...
Like so many children, I'm simultaneously exactly like and nothing like my father. One of the things that's very different about us is that he's very much a caricature of the absent minded professor while I have a life that's planned weeks in advance in a color-coded...
Caregivers come from all ages and walks of life. So many of our community members have been part-time, full-time, long-distance, and professional caregivers over the years. But as Cathy put it so perfectly: It isn't a competition regarding when we started caregiving,...
Sometimes people don't know the right thing to say. In fact, they put their foot in their mouths pretty often. But sometimes they say just the right thing and it makes a world of difference. I asked our community: Was there a time someone said the wrong thing? What do...
Having a parent or grandparent in a nursing home can be incredibly difficult, especially when so many of us have promised we'd keep them at home forever. So often residential care hardly feels like it reduces the amount of time we spend caregiving, with all the...
No matter how rewarding caregiving can be or how much we love the person we're caring for, caregiving is frustrating. Frustration just comes with the package. We're human and caregiving inevitably involves situations and tasks that are inherently frustrating. So many...