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Seniors Need Caring
It is hard to know you need help at any age. Kids at two will declare “I do it myself!” and they mean it no matter how they may struggle. As we grow up we know we can’t do everything; we may use Jiffy Lube for the car and we might hire a pro to install the carpet but we easily rationalize that these are tasks we don’t have time or tools for. As time goes on we might need help with more things like a big project but it is another thing to consider help ‘caring’ for yourself.
Everyone has their own personal definition of caring for themselves. For some it is taking care of the broad physical needs like cooking, cleaning, driving – basically being completely independent. Another part of caring for yourself is mental; motivation, stress relief, ‘getting over’ sadness or depression. Yet another view of caring is the very personal care such as bathing, feeding, and dressing. Your definition depends on many things including gender, social upbringing and personality but at some point you might wonder if you need help.
There isn’t a handy check list or standard symptoms for this one but here are a few things to think about.
- Do you lack motivation to do things you once enjoyed?
- Are normal tasks taking longer and longer?
- Do you ever forget what you are doing or what comes next?
- Have you accidentally hurt yourself and are not sure how?
- Do you sometimes not see, or, miss a stop sign or other traffic signal?
You can still be 90% independent while getting help with that last 10%. You will be happier and healthier with help; someone doing the lifting, or cooking, or driving or just coming to visit and chat to keep the brain in gear.
At some point others around you, who love you, might start to insist that you need help because they are seeing things slipping. They mean the best but you might feel compelled to fight it just because it is not your decision. Just like loosing weight or quitting smoking, you need to make the choice to be truly comfortable with it. However, if you want to own the decision and the situation then you need to look inward and at your need, see the truth, and then act on it. There is no shame or failure in taking charge of your life and looking for help, in fact, it is far more graceful than the ostrich philosophy.
Once you acknowledge what you need help with, you’ll quickly learn that most people around you love to be asked. Helping others often makes them feel useful and important. Most of your friends or family can help to do the everyday things; cooking, shopping and regular normal tasks and motivating and supporting your self-confidence regarding the changes you are making. There are plenty of levels of professional care givers that can help with the more skilled or personal tasks that you might feel comfortable with.
Realizing you may need help caring for yourself is a hard thing to do, but, taking charge of how you fix the problem is completely in your control.
