Where Is Guilt Hurting You as a Caregiver?

Caregiver Fresno CA – Where Is Guilt Hurting You as a Caregiver?

Guilt is extremely common as a family caregiver, but you might not realize how harmful it is for you. At first guilt seems like a tool that you can use to make sure you’re doing the right thing. But is that what it’s really doing?

Your Relationships with Others

When you’re constantly feeling guilty, that’s going to color your relationship with your aging adult, with other family members, and with other people in your life. You may be facing situations such as other people not understanding why you can’t give them the time that they need or want or you might have upset them with your priorities. This can usually still be fixed, but you may need to deal with your residual feelings of guilt.

Your Ability to Make Solid Decisions

Guilt can really interfere with your thought processes. Because those emotions are so powerful, they can influence you one way or another in ways that may not be aware of. Taking the time to make sure that you’re making decisions logically with the right information can help you to get past this. Making a simple pro and con list can help you to see if you’re dealing with facts rather than emotions.

Meeting Your Physical and Emotional Needs

Battling guilt means that doing even necessary things can become tied to feeling badly about yourself. You might put aside your own needs, such as eating well, exercising, and sleeping as much as you should to feel rested, in favor of doing things for other people. While this is a part of life, to a certain extent, if you’re consistently putting your own needs into the background because you feel guilty taking care of yourself, you’re not going to be able to keep being a caregiver.

Your Relationship with Yourself

Because guilt interferes with so much of the rest of your life, it also interferes with how you see yourself. If you’re not being authentic, you know that even if the rest of the world doesn’t. You might start to distrust your reactions and how you respond in certain situations. You’re also likely to start talking badly to yourself within your internal dialogue because of the choices you’re making.

Letting go of guilt is vital to helping you to be effective as a caregiver. If you’re finding it difficult to let go of any feelings of guilt you’re experiencing, talk to a therapist who can help you work through what’s causing them.

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