Family Illness: Attitudes, Stress, and Caregiver Burnout

Continuation of Item 4:

Incorrect Attitudes Towards Family Illness

The following are incorrect attitudes when dealing with the illness of a family member:

1. Permanently refusing to face reality, which negatively affects the patient's psychological development.
2. Overprotecting the patient.
3. Interrupting all recreational activities, i.e., not allowing distractions.
4. Falling into servitude, that is, doing everything the patient says. This can lead to the patient and family resenting this behavior and engaging in recriminations.
5. Having a passive and inept attitude, that is, not wanting to learn how to care for the sick person.
6. Maintaining feelings of rage and anger for an extended period, which often accompanies the illness.
7. Anticipating the mourning stage, i.e., behaving with the patient and others as if they had already died.
8. Overburdening family responsibilities.

Overburdening family responsibilities can cause what is called family claudication. This occurs when the patient's family caregivers feel overwhelmed by all the care the patient needs at home.

Item 5:

Understanding Stress and Stress Management

Stress is a feeling of physical or emotional tension that often occurs when we face situations considered difficult (a danger, a loss, a failure). Different people consider different situations as stressful, as we saw in the unit's start-up activities. That is, the perception of stress is subjective.

Stress management involves controlling the tension that occurs in stressful situations. If we cannot handle stress, we may suffer from anxiety. Anxiety is a feeling of great insecurity, often accompanied by physical manifestations (chest tightness, sweating, palpitations, dyspnea, tremors, etc.).

Positive and Negative Stress

Stress in itself is not bad. Sometimes, it is a useful reaction of our body to stay alert and prepared for a difficult situation. Any student knows that they perform better on a test if they are a little tense. Our body is more alert, our heart pumps more blood, our breathing increases to get more oxygen to our cells, and blood is redistributed to prioritize the most vital organs.

However, excessive or prolonged stress turns against us, causing physical and psychological disorders. Sustained and/or excessive stress is a risk factor for suffering from cardiovascular disorders, depression, infections, cancer, diabetes, and metabolic and hormonal issues. Sometimes, people try to fight stress with measures that are damaging to their health (eating junk food, smoking, drinking, drug abuse, etc.).