Caregiver burnout: straight answers
What is caregiver burnout?
Exhaustion, physical, emotional and mental, that builds while you take care of someone else. It's common, and it isn't a sign you care less.
Cleveland Clinic describes caregiver burnout as “a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that happens while you’re taking care of someone else.” It also says that “more than 60% of caregivers experience symptoms of burnout.”
What it doesn’t mean
It doesn’t mean you love the person less, or that you’re doing it wrong. More often it means you’ve been carrying a lot, for a long time, without enough help. Being worn out by caregiving and loving the person you care for can both be true.
This page doesn’t give you a list of signs to check yourself against. Whether what you’re feeling is burnout, or something else, is a good question for your own doctor.
Where the help is
- A break. Someone else takes over for a while: what respite care is, and how to find it near you.
- Time off work. What the FMLA allows.
- Someone to talk to. Free lines, at any hour.
- Less on your plate. How to ask family for help.
If it ever feels like too much, you can call or text 988 at any hour. It’s free and confidential.
More questions caregivers ask
- Is it normal to resent caring for a parent?
- What is respite care?
- Where can a caregiver talk to someone?
- All the caregiver burnout questions
From Centis, a free care notebook you talk to. None of this is medical or legal advice.
Further reading
- Caregiver Burnout (opens in a new tab), from the Cleveland Clinic
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (opens in a new tab), from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline