Establishing Healthy Boundaries to Avoid Caregiver Burnout

Are you a caregiver for a parent, friend, spouse or friend? If you are, have you ever felt frustrated, irritable, distant, angry or depressed? If you have, you are not alone. Many caregivers feel this way and what you are experiencing is burnout or compassion fatigue. Burnout usually happens very quickly but there are ways to help yourself feel better and change the negative feeling. There are usually 2 reasons why burnout occurs: 1. Lack of personal boundaries and 2. Feeling guilty that you are not doing enough. Establishing healthy limits as caregivers and knowing it is ok to say no can combat the causes of burnout.

As caregivers we want to recognize how much we are capable of doing to help while maintaining good physical and mental health. We also want to acknowledge that we need help and that we need to share caregiver tasks with others. Caregivers want to learn to manage the feeling of guilt. If you feel guilty, reverse the feeling by thinking about all of your caregiver contributions and how meaningful they are. Balancing caregiving responsibilities with joyful activities and self care is critical to good health. We want to find activities that are important to us and honor them. As caregivers, we want to remember that we cannot be everything that someone else needs because it is impossible to do so and sets us up to fail.

​There are ways we can feel supported as caregivers.  It is important to communicate our thoughts and feelings to others. It is important to ask for help. Joining a support group, arranging for respite and asking medical professionals to guide us on our journey can be beneficial. If our caregiving situation no longer feels tenable, it is important to address alternative arrangements.

It is important for caregivers to be clear about what they can and cannot do. Recognizing the reality of the situation and being honest with ourselves allows us to be better caregivers. Caregiving is difficult and you are a rockstar for taking it on!! Give yourself the credit you deserve.