As The Primary Caregiver, Should I Journal My Feelings About Alzheimer?s Disease?
As The Primary Caregiver, Should I Journal My Feelings About Alzheimer?s Disease?
Being a caregiver is stressful and difficult. It involves contradictory feelings, thoughts and frustrations. When you have to care for a loved one who has Alzheimer's, you have to be patient, talk with a calm voice and never "talk down" to your loved one.Journaling your thoughts and feelings will definitely help you cope with the situation. Write in your journal all that comes through your mind and your heart; nobody but you will read it. It is between you and your journal. Let your pen guide you through the pages. You may want to do some extra research on Alzheimer's disease to better understand the process and stages your loved one will pass through. If you are a little bit knowledgeable about the disease, the process of caring will be easier on both you and your loved one.You can keep daily notes on your loved one, such as bathing or eating changes, whether she becomes agitated, and so on. It can also help you remember things to discuss with the doctor.The good thing about a journal is that it is handy and you can write whenever you feel like it, day or night. It will never contradict you. On the contrary, it will aid you in dealing with your internal emotions; it will relieve your mind and your soul. If you are uncomfortable about writing, then it may be easier for you to express your feelings by recording them on a tape recorder. If you like, you can recall some family gathering you all had together, a camping trip or fishing trip where your loved one caught a BIGGGGG fish! You can read this part to him and it might trigger some memory in your loved one?a memory that was lost to Alzheimer's.Journaling will also help you release the burden of care giving you may have. Releasing the burden through the pen will definitely ease the pain. But journaling should not be the only way out for these strong feelings you have. You may want to enroll in a support group. You can check through the Alzheimer's Association if there is such a group in you area. Speaking to other people will help in getting all these negative emotions out. And most of the participants are dealing with exactly the same emotions because they have to care for a loved one who has dementia. Sometimes, speaking out loud and getting out these feelings will do you a lot of good and you will feel much better after. You may even make friends through these groups, friends that will be able to support you as time goes on.Remember, you are not alone. You have friends and family to talk to. Maybe you can ask a family member to help with your loved one. It will ease the burden and give you more time to yourself, to journal and to recharge your batteries.About The AuthorWilliam G. Hammond, JD is a nationally known elder law attorney and founder of The Alzheimer's Resource Center. He is a frequent guest on radio and television and has developed innovative solutions to guide families who have a loved one suffering from Alzheimer's. For more information you can visit his website at www.BeatAlzheimers.com.
Not Sure About the Mind?Body Connection? You Already Use It To Produce Pain Relief
Not Sure About the Mind?Body Connection? You Already Use It To Produce Pain Relief
But Not Nearly Often EnoughIf you're skeptical about your ability to use your own subconscious to ease pain, consider this: you already do it. But you do it by accident, so you don't notice. Here's how to do it on purpose and get better results. Let's say you had a bad night and awoke with more pain than usual. You're resigned to having a bad day, but suddenly find your daughter on your doorstep asking if you would mind watching your four-year-old grandson for a few hours. He's the light of your life, and that morning as you play with him the time just flies by. You hardly think of your pain.What you've just demonstrated is something that all of us who suffer from chronic discomfort have experienced at one time or another: the power of the mind to interrupt the pain cycle. This seems to occur on an accidental basis when four common types of events occur:? Positive Feelings. The story about the grandson is a good example. When something better than expected occurs, the subconscious tends to release dopamine, a brain chemical that produces feelings of well-being. Even though the amount of pain may be no different, you usually notice it less.? Distractions. When you're intensely engaged in an activity you love you tend to feel less pain. During this kind of a distraction you're probably triggering the subconscious to positively influence at least two pain relief factors-the production of beneficial brain chemicals, and the generation of upbeat emotions.? Relaxation. Anytime you can relax you're likely to feel less pain. You've probably experienced this after a hot bath, an hour of your favorite music, or a massage from a therapist who knows how to avoid your sore spots. Heat, music and touch signal the subconscious to relax the musculoskeletal system, which eases pain.? Acceptance. You may have noticed that the more you resist your pain the more it hurts you. If you've ever been able to just let it be, and not fight it, it probably backed off a little. In that moment you inadvertently gave your subconscious the message that the pain was within your tolerance level, and it may have complied.These factors could be operating whether you have back pain or pain in the neck or other extremities, arthritis pain, fibromyalgia pain, or even neuropathic pain (nerve pain).The Role of VisualizationMany of the occasions on which you've reduced pain due to positive feelings, distractions, relaxation or acceptance have probably been accidents. But they prove that the mind-body connection works, not just for other people but for you yourself.Through visualization statements you may be able to build on these experiences to make them regular events.Visualization statements represent the specific language that your subconscious wants you to read back to it to help ease your pain. They're simple and are targeted directly at the main factors that could bring you relief.You can obtain these statements by learning how to communicate directly with your own subconscious mind. The process is straightforward and can be done at home by working with a facilitator over the telephone. You you need no special skills and no previous experience in working with the subconscious.? You can directly visualize an increase in dopamine, and can indirectly do so by reading visualization statements designed to produce feelings of well-being.? You can visualize an increase in your love for different activities, thereby helping to make them valid distractions from your pain.? You can visualize the relaxation of your muscles and an increase in the flexibility of your tendons and ligaments, helping to remove pain from within.? You can visualize the acceptance of your pain, assisting your subconscious to move it into your range of tolerance.Programming the SubconsciousThe subconscious is quite powerful. When programmed through the very visualizations that it suggests, it may be able to turn episodes of accidental pain relief into events over which you have a degree of control.Ben Plumb is CEO and President of The Visualization Group, Inc. The company's service is delivered by people like himself who personally suffered from years of chronic pain, and used the visualization method described in this article to obtain relief when nothing else worked. For more information, please visit http://www.thevisualizationgroup.com.(c) 2005 The Visualization Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The methodology and program disclosed in this article are Patent Pending.