your thoughts are the one thing you completely control.
Viewing Through a New Lens: Positive Reframing for Dementia Caregivers by Dr. Elizabeth Shulman
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves." These words by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl can offer brilliant guidance to those caring for someone with Alzheimer's or another dementia-related illness. There are more than 16 million dementia caregivers in the U.S. Not surprisingly, a sense of burden and depression are two of the most researched areas in the field of caregiving.1 Whether it's limited support, a response to their loved one's behavior or just a general sense of loss, it is not unusual for caregivers to wish things were different in some way. However, when a stressful situation offers no immediate solution, caregivers may discover a sense of hope and well-being not by changing their actual circumstances, but by changing how they look at their situation. » more
Additional Resources
Embracing Your Unique Role as a Spousal Caregiver
Not all spouses are created equal, but your individual approach to caregiving is uniquely yours, and equally valuable. Read more about this at The Alois Alzheimer's Foundation website.
A Prayer for Caregivers
Loving Lord, Thank you for the gift of these few minutes to stop and breathe and to remember that you are with me in this very moment. Dementia is an illness that tempts me to question why such a thing would exist. I am losing my loved one a lit bit every day, and at times it is so sad for me. But I have confidence in your words that “all the days ordained for me (and my loved one!) were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16b).
Help me to see my loved one and our situation through your eyes. Show me all the ways you are present so that the caregiving struggles that tempt me to question myself turn into signposts that assure me of your presence.
Remind me that one mishap does not govern my entire day; that my day is made up of moments just like this one and that you are creating anew every single moment.
Help me to not feel trapped in a situation where I sometimes feel powerless and to find ways where freedom abounds, even if only is for five minutes sitting with my feet up and drinking a cup of coffee.
Give me the courage to reach out for help when I feel overwhelmed, and direct me to those who want to support me but who count on me
to tell them how they can do that.
Above all, Lord, give me hope; hope that my efforts are everything my loved one needs, hope that tomorrow will bring me answers to questions I have today, and hope in your words that I truly can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me. Amen.
Click below for a link to Prayerideas.org where you will find many heartfelt, inspiring prayers on a wide variety of topics.