Yet caregiver stress differs from ordinary stress, like that from the work place. Its "ingredients" differ. Love, caring, devotion, loyalty, pushing oneself to--and beyond--the limit. While granted there is satisfaction, frustration, anger, resentment and fatigue are common byproducts. They generate stress. Can non-careivers appreciate caregiver stress?
Unlike Supreme Court Justice's Potter Stewart's famous pornography quote: "I know it when I see it," I believe we can only know caregiver stress if we've experienced it. With so much information about reducing caregiver stress (about 17,700,000 items on Google; 1.990,000 on Yahoo) shouldn't we have learned to control it by now?
Three apparent roadblocks:
1, One size doesn't fit all (neither the elders we care for--nor us)
2. Non-caregiving family members often can't/don't appreciate the stress, and don't help.
3. We're often not very good at asking for--no insisting on--help when we need it. Is giving up "ownership" difficult? (True, they may not do as good a job as we.)
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