Stop Your Caregiver Loneliness Doing THIS
Stopping your caregiver loneliness is important. Just know that You are not alone if you are feeling alone as a caregiver. Being a caregiver takes so much out of you and in my previous blog article, Caregiver Loneliness Is Dangerous, I shared that loneliness increases the risk on your life.
Caregiver Loneliness is Widespread
a study in the UK revealed that Caregivers are seven times more likely than the general population to say they are always or often lonely, 71% of working caregivers have felt lonely or isolated in the workplace as a result of their caring responsibilities and (57%) of caregivers have lost touch with friends or family as a result of caregiving, so the first thing to realise is that YOU ARE NOT Alone !
That may not suffice, I’m not done, but for some of you, this will validate your feelings. If you’re feeling lonely and telling yourself you shouldn’t, you can drop the second part and that will already be very helpful.
If that’s the case for you, I’d love it if you could sharebelow the video to encourage others.
Two Ways to Stop Your Caregiver Loneliness
There are basically two ways to feel less lonely. One is to become comfortable in your own company and the other to find more interaction. There is a place for both.
The first :
To be more at ease in your own company, you can
- Carve out 10 minutes in your day to do something meaningful for you. Reading, writing, doing something creative, something for you that makes you enjoy your own company. It could also be doing your nails, or looking at the sky, maybe it’s listening to music you like.
- For some of you, 10 minutes of me-time will make you feel less lonely. It may seem strange but it is certainly worth trying.
- You could also give yourself a hand, foot or head massage for a few minutes. Giving yourself this care might work for you.
- You could go pick yourself some flowers if you have access to that.
The second way to stop your caregiver loneliness:
Pour avoir plus d’interactions et stopper votre solitude d’aidant :
To get more interaction and stop your caregiver loneliness,
- You could Call a trusted friend and let them know how you feel. Most people are happy to be of support and a 10 minute call with the right person might change your outlook.
- Also, you can come and spend a few minutes with me here on YouTube every Tuesday at 8 am East Coast Time.
- Social media is often not a way to feel less lonely but there may be a Facebook group or a forum of caregivers that you could join, to interact with people who understand what you are going through.
- You could also look for respite care for your loved one. If you can do that, you can take that time to go do something social. Maybe you have a club near you that has activities you can attend once in a while, maybe you have friends you haven’t been able to see. Maybe you can attend a social event at work that you otherwise couldn’t. A bit of respite care could go a long way.
We must stop this!
A huge number of caregivers feel lonely. If you’d like to watch the video I recorded about this, “Don’t Feel Lonely Caregiver Do THIS Instead” it’s right here: https://youtu.be/WY0gCnLMq8E
Watch the video of this article HERE
Now even if you’re doing all these tips, you’re probably still going to experience loneliness so I want to talk about exactly how to deal with that. I’ll be doing exactly this in my next video and my net blog article.
Sonia Weyers
Gestalt-therapist – Supporting Caregivers Emotionally
Dare The Freedom To Be Yourself
PS: For more tips for caregivers of loved ones with a loss of autonomy you can check out my blog , from 2024, my YouTube Videos or my book “The Sundown of Life”.