By Sarah Peterman on July 8, 2015 under Aging in Place as a Family, Process of Aging, Senior Care Advice
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Every experienced family caregiver knows that seniors have their good days and bad days. Mood swings resulting from dissatisfaction, poor health, stress, pain, and a loss of dignity can easily lead to your loved one to lash out against you and others that they care about. Being a family caregiver under these conditions can be particularly stressful for the sandwich generation, who are “sandwiched” between living with an elderly parent and caring for their own children.
While dealing with these feelings and the emotional strain they cause can require a considerable amount of patience and empathy, there’s much more you can do than simply hope for more good days than bad ones. Below you can learn about several simple steps you can take to help those you look after to be less cranky, and help preserve your own wellbeing as a family caregiver in the process.
Download A Free Guide to Dealing with Elderly Anger
Emotional Turmoil in the Elderly
Getting older can magnify our character traits, often in undesirable ways. Someone who was crabby in their younger days may be prone to full-on bouts of rage in old age. Unfortunately, caregivers are often the target of these outbursts, and it may seem at times as though there may be no simple solution to deal with this type of behavior. After all, when outbursts are not caused by serious problems like chronic pain or difficulties in memory, they’re often the result of serious illnesses like Alzheimer’s or dementia, over which your loved one has no control.
How to Handle Anger
The first step to dealing with these problems is to understand that you shouldn’t take these negative emotions and their associated behavior personally. Pain and disease can cause us to act in very inappropriate ways, and it’s important to take any opportunity for a break from your caregiving duties that you can get. In the long term, you’ll likely want to spread caregiving amongst as many friends and family members as you can to make the possibility of these breaks more frequent.
The best solution to dealing with difficult elderly parents is almost always communication. Unfortunately, parents can be generally uneasy talking with their children about fears of the future, finances, and their mortality. If your loved one seems increasingly frustrated, anxious, or otherwise emotionally disturbed, it’s your responsibility to find out why if you want to help fix the problem. The next time both of you are in a pleasant mood, try warming them up to the conversation, and be ready to try several times before you’re successful.{END QUOTE}
Read more: http://www.griswoldhomecare.com/blog/dealing-with-elderly-anger/#ixzz3fUK21wz9
