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Health & Fitness

Senior Care Stress Buster: Voicing Your Concerns

What is one good way to relieve stress that doesn't involve chocolate?





Senior Care Stress Buster: Voicing Your Concerns, written by Stan Lawson of Sequoia Senior Solutions 
   

Seniors living alone can often be feeling stressed out and may not be sure how to reach out and ask for help. The same applies if you are looking after an aging parent in your own home. You can become stressed out and stuck when it comes to asking for help. So what do you do?

First you need to learn to recognize stress. Here are a few signs that you or your loved one is stressed out. This come from an article Five Signs of Senior Stress:

  1. Changes in eating habits such as over eating or loss of appetite can be caused by overwhelming stress.
  2. Mood swings due to stress may present in increased irritability, general sadness or depression.
  3. Memory issues may arise in the form of increased forgetfulness of names, places or other things that normally come natural to seniors. Lack of concentration may become a problem. Some seniors may exercise poor judgment such as excessive spending when they are already on a limited budget. This is not an indication of dementia.
  4. Physical signs of stress can include body aches and pains, or increased episodes of illness. Changes in sleeping patterns – either trouble falling asleep or interrupted nighttime sleep – can signal significant stress.
  5. Seniors experiencing overwhelming stress often isolate themselves from others, refusing to socialize or participate in activities they used to enjoy.

When you realize that you or a loved one is suffering from stress, the best way to deal with any type of stressful situation is to take a step back and evaluate your position. Taking notes can be really helpful as well. Try to identify what it is that is making you feel so stressed out.

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It could be that you are having difficulty cooking your own meals or doing your laundry. For those looking after another person you may feel that you just don’t have any time for yourself any more.

What set you off?

In order to eliminate stress you first need to learn how to identify your triggers and then learn how to deal with them. Once you have identified your problem area you can begin to take action. If you can, try to talk to another person who is close to you, possibly your spouse or another family member.

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An article: Stress Relief in the Moment says this about talking:

Want to know a quick social stress reliever? Talk to someone! It’s true, talking about your stress with a calm and balanced listener will make you feel better instantly. Although it’s not always realistic to have a pal close by to lean on, building and maintaining a friendship network is ultimately good for your mental health. Between quick stress relief techniques and good listeners, you’ll have all your bases covered.

Talking and voicing your concerns can be a huge help in itself. Other family members may not recognize your issues and think that you are doing a great job. By letting them know that this is not the case they can offer to help you.

If you are experiencing a really difficult time then it may be advisable to talk to a professional person. Look for someone who is specifically trained in what you are going through. They may have solutions that you have not even thought of.

Loneliness?

Seniors living alone can experience severe periods of loneliness. Other family members may not come to visit as often. If this happens to you why not make a point of inviting them over for dinner? Make it a pot luck so you aren’t doing all of the cooking!

Asking for help is difficult for many people. If you feel embarrassed about asking for help then look for other ways of voicing your feelings, such as the dinner invitation.

You should never be afraid to ask for help and it is not a sign of weakness. It is actually a good sign. You are acknowledging that something is wrong and that you are aware of the situation and are trying to deal with it.

Don't have a clue?

Sometimes you may not even be sure of what your problem is. When you talk with others it can help you identify this problem so that it can be dealt with. Your spouse can be a great listener and so can a good friend or another family member. Bear in mind that in some really stressful situations it may be necessary to seek outside medical help such as seeing a therapist.

No matter what the necessary course of action is, you want to take the appropriate steps quickly. Never let a situation become too stressful or out of hand. Take the first step by reaching out and asking for help.

Quite often it can be another person that can see that you are dealing with stress. Stress can creep up on you without realizing and you just view it as being tired. You don’t sleep or eat properly and just go about during the day in almost a daze.

This is absolutely not healthy and should be avoided at all costs. Remember that talking about problems and just getting it off your chest can relieve a huge amount of stress.

For more great information, please come visit the blog at our Sequoia Senior Solutions website. 

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