Caregiving is incredibly difficult. The hardness could be described like this: Lonely, Depressing, Exhausting. There is a lot more to caregiving than just those hard things, but those three words do a pretty good job summarizing what is hard about caregiving.
There are ways to alleviate all three of those difficult aspects to caregiving. I’m here today to give you a little tip for the issue of loneliness.
Hint: You are not alone.
Though there are days in caregiving when you feel utterly alone, there are hundreds, even thousands of people going through exactly the same sort of things you are dealing with.
And you can connect with them online. There are online communities for caregivers in general, and also groups formed for specific diseases. No one place is better than all the others. There are many different group formats, sizes, and each has its own atmosphere. You might not fit in one place, but fit in great another.
If you are feeling lonely as a caregiver, take a look around at the online community that can support you.
There are many places where you can meet other caregivers in the digital world, but as an introduction I will highlight two.
- An Alzheimer’s and Dementia Caregiver Support Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1661835794070386/ This is a private group so you must join before you can see what people have written or post yourself. Don’t let this requirement deter you. This is an active group with a lot of members. Sometimes the sheer number of people and posts can feel overwhelming, but the other side of the coin is that if you’re dealing with some issue as an Alzheimer’s caregiver somebody else in this group has probably dealt with it too. The environment is very supportive.
- TheCaregiverSpace.org: This second website is geared toward caregivers of all types: http://thecaregiverspace.org/about/ I link to the about page because there you get a quick overview of what the site is about. I found this website notable for how many articles it has from different caregivers. This provides a much broader exposure to the difference aspects and perspectives on caregiving. The website is very slick and makes it easy to discover content. There are forums where you can chat with other caregivers but it isn’t as large (or active) as the Facebook group for Alzheimer’s caregivers.
Those two places are only a few drops in the large sea of other caregivers you can meet online. So if you’re feeling lonely in your caregiving journey, consider stepping out to meet some fellow travelers.