Posted in Relaxation & Stress on July 12th, 2010
Tags: caregiver, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, stress

The high stress factor in caregiving: Caregivers coping with high stress can over time develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Tears are a sign of Post Traumatic Stress, where the memories associated to traumatic events becomes an “anxiety wound” that is difficult to heal.

Caregivers must learn to recognize the stress and grief brought on from family caregiving, as the emotional wounding can turn into trauma that erodes health for many years down the road. 

Do you suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and  not even know it?  Stress can prevent you from seeing the truth behing health problems.

    

 

The symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) related to family caregiving can sneak up on you when you least expect it.  Here is my story. 

Weeks before I had a mild stroke, Zippy Lou, our 6 lb Maltese Terrier pet-child knew something was wrong with my health. There were a few times while sleeping, she would jump up onto my chest to wake me up from a deep sleep, only to look down at me like a concerned mother hen, until I would scratch her fuzzy head and reassure her all was OK. I could feel myself coming out of a seizure state every time Zippy would wake me up like this. 

Every so often while working on the computer, small seizures behind my eyes would make it difficult to focus but would ignore the signs thinking it was an impending migraine and carried on with my work. Zippy knew better and would tap me with her little paws to get my attention, asking me to follower her. She would lead me to my bed; her way of telling me she could sense I was having a mild seizure and must to lie down and rest. 

Then a few weeks later, a mild stroke hit without warning! While sitting at my computer I felt as if I was hit by a baseball bat in the head and chest. Falling to the floor, not sure if I had a stroke or a heart attack, I lost my ability to rationalize, thinking I cannot go to the hospital because who will take care of my disabled husband, Barry, when I am not at home. 

In my hazy confused state, a friend’s medical advice from years before came back to me; in case of a heart attack or stroke take a product called Cellfood which immediately provides oxygen to the brain and heart. I pulled out the Cellfood from the emergency medical kit and took Cellfood drops every 15 minutes for an hour and then continued with the drops every hour for three hours. 

Defiant and refusing to call an ambulance and go to emergency, I laid down to rest for a few hours until my balance returned to some degree. Three days later, when I realized my loss of equilibrium was due to losing most of the vision in my left eye, that I finally went to see my family doctor. 

A few weeks later, I am in the hospital for eye surgery. Even though I feel calm, I was anxious to get the surgery over with and to leave as I could feel decades of sorrow caused by trauma and death in the surgery ward. No one can scrub years of death and sorrow from the walls and couldn’t stand the odor in the air. It clings to your skin and permeates your body. A gateway where the newly dead learn their fate. 

Then the yelling started. Someone is in a panic and is yelling loudly at a patient. “Stay with me, stay with me.” “Focus on my voice,” heard by everyone in the hall, and then another person yelling in a panicky voice, “Where is the crash cart?” “Who moved the crash cart?” “Where the HELL is the crash cart?” Then bang, as the life saving cart is located and pushed through the door into the operating theater to resuscitate the patient in distress. 

Your heart races out of concern for the dying patient and the medical staff having to deal with the emergency. Within a few minutes everyone around me was moving on with their day, but I found myself frozen with ten years of medical emergencies I had endured with Barry’s frail health. I started to cry uncontrollably, trying to hide my tears as I covered my face from the rest of the patients around me. 

I cannot count how many times I had to cope with the on going medical emergencies and the numerous 911 ambulance calls made for Barry in the last decade. The trauma of each emergency shreds your nerves raw. Just hearing the emergency from the next room triggered my tearful breakdown. 

Hospital staff and the patients were concerned with my crying, and had to explain to the nurse who was caring for me, that I was dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from ten years of family caregiving for my husband. I am fortunate to understand my emotional state, and to provide an explanation so others can understand my tearful reaction to the emergency in the next room. Otherwise, my tears would have caused shame from the embarrassment of being so emotional. 

I am known to be a very emotionally strong person, and will be the first person to take charge and lend a hand in any emergency, but even the strong have their limits and can become stressed and traumatized from the daily exposure of the hardships associated with caregiving. 

Family Caregivers do not receive formal training or support for the medical emergencies they must deal with, where as medical staff receive formal training as part of their employment. Family Caregivers are left on their own to emotionally cope as best they can with the trauma of caregiver related emergencies. 

In the event of Post Traumatic Stress, medical staff have access to trauma counseling through their employer, while Family Caregivers who help sustain the medical system, must cope with Post Traumatic Stress on their own, with many caregivers not even aware they suffer from an emotional disorder related to caregiving. 

I remember attending a parade with my husband, Barry, a few years ago, where the parade started with the fire engines blaring to get the crowd’s excitement up. When I heard the sirens, I could not help myself from breaking down and crying and had to leave the main street of the parade to wipe away my tears and recomposed myself. Even when I returned back to stand behind Barry’s wheelchair to watch the excitement of the parade, I still had a difficult time controlling my tears. This was my first incident where I made the connection between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and caregiving. 

So how does a Family Caregiver cope with the trauma of caregiving? Honor your emotions. They are there to guide you, and not to control you, your enviroment or another person. Learn to understand your emotions and respect what you are feeling. When you feel unsettled, angry, sad, tearful, or confused, take the time to relax by yourself and listen to the sensations in your body. What is your body telling you? Once you recognize the emotion, then you are able to make the connection to where and how the feeling had taken root. 

From there you may either nurture and explore the emotion to deal with unresolved issues, or you may choose to let go of the emotion altogether, and replace it with a more positive one. 

SUMMARY: 

CAREGIVER – Caregivers must guard against high levels of stress leading to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

STRESS – When stress levels are out of control the effects can lead to PTSD. 

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER – PTSD, When stress creates trauma causing symptoms of emotional anxiety. 

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