The Toll of Being a Caregiver

AADT has a good discussion of a recent story about the stress of caring and its impact on physical and mental health.

[C]aregivers, a group whose health is typically much poorer than contemporaries not caring for a loved one, endure stress and health deterioration in relation to the amount and intensity of the care they give. This burden, usually above and beyond work duties and nuclear family obligations, leads to high levels of depression, anxiety and stress. In describing her own experiences, one caregiver highlights how health can decline so rapidly:

Sometimes you didn't have time to take a shower. You didn't eat properly because you're so busy preparing their food and tending to them. You miss doctor's appointments because you can't get somebody to stay with him or you can't (bring) him," [Barbara Redmond, 68, said of caring for her husband for 2 1/2 years before his death.]

They give a very good summary of the statistics.

Carers need practical support for what they do and they need support for themselves. Yet again, this problem is only going to increase as our population ages. Fewer people will have the physical resources to allow them to carry out heavy-duty caring. There will be a time when we realise the cost of doing nothing.

Stress Therapy Offer To Ill Jobless: Really?

According to The Guardian, the government is about to offer stress therapy to people who have had to quit work because of stress or depression.

So, would this be a separate plan to the Layard proposal for enhanced access to cognitive-behavioural therapy? Or is this a separate proposal? If so, is this a well-researched and validated programme? Or is it a nice, worthy sounding initiative that is not expected to go anywhere?

Why focus on stress therapy? Has anyone looked at the possibility of focusing on people's character strengths and virtues and using those to help someone to help themselves? Has there been any investigation of resilience work that would not only relieve stress in the short-term but sustain it? Is accepting the health benefits of positive emotion still too much of a leap of faith?

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

Dr Serani's 6 Myths About Stress

Psychologist Dr Deborah Serani dispels six myths about stress in the hope of promoting greater understanding. It sounds a lot like being aware of the allostatic load of your life. I've borrowed this following explanation of allostasis from Dr. Salt's summary of a classic paper:

[stress has] many mechanisms, but among the most prominent are the manifestations of physiological stress responses as a result of living and working conditions, inter-personal conflict, as well as the sense of control of one’s environment and optimism/pessimism toward the future. "Allostatic load" refers to the cost of adaptation to a stressful environment, which elicits repeated and sometimes prolonged adaptive responses ("allostasis") that preserve homeostasis in the short run but can cause wear- and-tear on the body and brain. Functional symptoms and syndromes, decreased cognitive function during aging, abdominal obesity, increased risk for hypertension and cardiovascular disease, insulin-dependent diabetes and decreased immune responses are all manifestations of allostatic load.

We have powerful ways of modulating the harmful output of the stress response systems that include belief systems and behaviors. An important quote attributed to Dr. McEwen is, "We must also remember that the biggest problems for the human race in the future are those associated with our own behavior and misbehavior and the impact of the social and physical environment on our bodies and brains."

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Stress, Anxiety and Depression: diverse findings from mice and stressed people

There is a lot of disagreement about anxiety and depression among professionals. Some argue that they are discrete categories. Others say that they tend to co-exist. There is disagreement about whether the anxiety that often accompanies chronic depression is a cause or effect of the illness.

Research in mice suggests that chronic stress as a precursor of anxiety may be a trigger for -- rather than a symptom of -- depression. People with depression typically have measurably higher levels of cortisol (stress-fighting, anti-inflammatory hormone), but researchers disagree whether this is a cause or effect of depression. The findings of the mouse research indicate that chronic exposure to cortisol may contribute to the development of depression.

The mice were acutely (24 hours) and chronically (17 to 18 days) dosed with their stress hormone. They mice were then given a common behavioural test for anxiety in animals: researchers measured how much time it took to leave a small dark enclosure for a brightly lit, open field. The research reports that the mice exposed to chronically raised levels of stress hormones were more hesitant less to explore their new environment and more fearful.

The research also indicates that the mice with chronic exposure responded with dulled reactions to being startled: an indication that their nervous system might be overwhelmed.

FEAR and Stress As Collateral Damage

I’ve been advised to look at Paul Stiles Is the American Dream Killing You?. It’s a passionately written exploration of the author’s belief that the market/corporate interests are shredding our quality of life and human values.

Although there looks as if there is a lot with which I would disagree, Stiles does make some arguments that match my own recent thoughts about the role of FEAR in undermining people’s sense of well-being. Stiles discusses stress in terms that sound very like FEAR:

the word stress, as applied to people, comes form the word stress as applied to metals. The result is physical, mental and spiritual breakdown. Stress is thus the critical missing link between the market economy and human health.

 

According to psychologists, stress is caused by ‘any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well-being and thereby tax one’s coping abilities. The threat may be to one’s immediate physical safety, long-range security, self-esteem, reputation, or peace of mind.’ Such stress stems directly from all the market pressures we have just described. In effect, it is our response to the Market’s efforts to make the economy more productive. And to some extent, that response is natural and healthy. It is only the hypermarket that pushes us over the edge.(pg 35)

The book is an impassioned outcry against the shredding affect of market manipulation on life and society. Stiles claims that road rage, urban sprawl, latch-key children, obesity, depression and even waning sex drives are the collateral damage of being enslaved to the demands of the market/corporate interests. It doesn’t seem as if Stiles is arguing for conspiracy theories that are aimed at destroying quality of life: he comments that the impacts he deplores are collateral damage. However, the absence of malice probably doesn’t do much to improve the quality of life experienced by those who sustain most of the collateral damage.