Loneliness
Anchor Phrase: My relationships have changed, but I am not alone.
Dear Caregiver,
Caregiving can be such a lonely isolating experience.
Perhaps your caregiving situation requires you to be at home much of the time. Maybe your friends or family have gone quiet since this began. If your person has a weakened immune system, you may not be able to have visitors over or be in crowded spaces. Perhaps your person sleeps a lot and you’re left on your own. Or maybe there are times when you are surrounded by people, but because those people don’t “get it,” it feels as if you are all alone, even in a crowd.
Relationships often change during caregiving, both with the person we’re caring for and with the other people in our lives. In this chapter, we are going to acknowledge and make space to grieve those changed relationships, while taking time to recognize that there are ways in which we are not alone. Let’s begin.
Allison Breininger
Founder and Executive Director of The Negative Space
reflection questions
- In what situations do you feel the most alone?
- What is it about that situation that brings up those feelings?
- Which relationships in your life have changed since your caregiving began, either for the worse or the better?
- Have any of those changes surprised or disappointed you?
- What do you wish you could say to those people?
- What new friendships or connections have you formed because of your caregiving experience?
Guided Meditation
Essays and Poetry
Lonely – A Caregiver’s Perspective
Written by Allison Breininger Lonely. On a Tuesday morning In a Zoom call for work. My mind partially here But mostly with him At the
Worse Than a Tuesday
It is much easier to be hospitalized, homebound, grieving, depressed on a Tuesday than on days like this.
For Tuesdays are not filled with expectations.
They are not photo worthy.
There are no hashtags.