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Everything You Need To Know About Alzheimer’s Shadowing
If your loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, you may have noticed many behavioral changes. You may have noticed that your loved one doesn’t recognize you often or forgets familiar places. Other behavioral changes include wandering around, difficulty communicating, and so on.
Similarly, one of the symptoms is “Shadowing.” Look out to see whether your loved one is consistently following you wherever you go. If yes, then your loved one may have been shadowing you. If they don’t find you near, they get frustrated, scared, or anxious.
In today’s blog, let’s look at some common aspects of Alzheimer’s shadowing and how they impact caregivers. We are also going to check out coping strategies that family caregivers must follow to help their loved ones.
Table of contents:
- What is Alzheimer’s shadowing?
- Unique Challenges Faced by Family Caregivers
- Coping Strategies That Loved Ones Can Follow
- How does Alzheimer’s Care Help Family Caregivers?
- Conclusion
What is Alzheimer’s Shadowing?
Alzheimer’s shadowing is one of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease or any other forms of dementia. Individuals with shadowing symptoms follow their caregivers around.
And when they don’t see their caregivers around, they start feeling anxious or nervous.
The individual exhibiting shadowing symptoms consistently feels the need to be nearer to the caregiver. The thought of losing their caregivers creates fear within and makes them feel unsafe. So, as soon as the caregiver is away, the loved one starts exhibiting the behavior. They start searching for caregivers around. The wave of emotional turmoil drowns them, and this causes emotional disturbances. As a result, the caregivers feel stressed, and this causes caregiver burnout among many family caregivers.
Just imagine someone following you 24/7. How would you feel? Does it sound exhausting?
That’s how family caregivers feel when their loved one is shadowing them around the clock.
Let’s look at some other challenges that caregivers face.
Unique Challenges Of Family Caregivers
Picture this: You are a child and are taking a stroll in a forest with your mother. Suddenly, you are lost in a forest with your mother. To find out the right way, your mother asks you to wait for 10 minutes in the middle of nowhere. She said that she would return in 10-min and you started waiting. You waited and waited, and after an hour, you found no trace of your mother.
You shudder, and your worst nightmares come alive. You get anxious and nervous as you feel like you are suddenly exposed to any kind of danger lurking around. So, you start looking for your mother and run frantically here and there.
And after 2 hours you find your mother coming to you. This makes you feel better, and those nightmares vanish right away.
That’s how loved ones exhibiting Alzheimer’s shadowing feel! The loved one feels that their caregivers are the only ones who can keep them safe. They get nervous, frustrated, and anxious when they don’t see their caregivers around.
But let’s look at the other side of the story.
How would a caregiver feel when their loved one is following you all the time?
Imagine your loved one is continuously with you around the clock and leaving no private time. Even when you take a shower and you hear your loved one crying for you, how does this make you feel?
Family caregivers have various challenges while taking care of loved ones with Alzheimer’s shadowing.
Here, we take a look at the unique challenges they face from time to time.
Family Caregivers’ Challenges
Emotionally Exhausted
The family caregivers may get emotionally exhausted as their loved ones are consistently following them. This gives them no privacy and makes them socially isolated, as they cannot go out with anyone. Being away for a minute stresses out their loved ones, so the family caregivers feel like giving up their social life.
Key points
- Overwhelmed and stressed
- Social Isolation
- Feeling guilty and resentful
- Hopelessness
- Grieving after losing a loved one
Physical Exhaustion
Caregiving may sound rewarding, but the job is certainly not easier. One must be available emotionally and physically 24 hours a day around the loved one. So, even when the family caregiver is not well, he or she needs to be present for their loved one around the clock. This results in caregiver burnout.
Key notes:
- Fatigue
- Muscle ache
- Disturbance in sleep patterns
- Back pain
- Muscle strain
Therefore, caregivers need to learn coping strategies and a few techniques to help their loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease. Once the caregiver learns coping strategies, helping a loved one gets easier.
Coping Mechanisms
Over here, we highlight some important strategies that family caregivers can use with their loved ones. This helps the loved one cope with their emotional challenges and makes them less anxious. However, remember to practice these techniques often so that your loved one can learn to control their emotional outburst.
Firstly, let’s look at how to take care of loved ones showing Alzheimer’s shadowing.
Tips
- Set a reminder for loved ones to reduce anxiety
- Do meaningful activities to keep them engaged
- Practicing cognitively stimulating activities to reduce dementia progression
- Create a safe and secure environment to make them feel better
- Follow a routine to create stability
- Play soothing music to reduce stress
- Record your voice or familiar sound to foster a calming environment
- Minimize the things that trigger Alzheimer’s shadowing
- Reassure their presence to reduce their anxiety
- Encourage social activity participation
Following these tips will help you care for your loved ones diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Now, let’s jump into the coping strategies of caregivers. Learning coping mechanisms reduces caregiver burnout. It fosters the physical and emotional well-being of family caregivers and helps them deal with caregivers’ challenges.
Here is how it goes:
Techniques
- Understand the cause behind shadowing
- Be patient and emphatic
- Communicate better to learn about their concerns
- Practice self-care
- Look for respite care services
- Socialize and meet other caregivers
- Set boundaries to prevent caregiver burnout
- Take small breaks for introspection
- Practice mindfulness
- Seek support, if needed
Following these techniques can help you provide quality care to loved ones and reduce dementia progress and Alzheimer’s shadowing.
In Conclusion,
Alzheimer’s shadowing is one of the symptoms and may require consistent care and support from family caregivers or a home health care aide.
However, if you feel that you need professional help, fortunately, there are many home care agencies in Mesa, AZ.
Home care agencies offer caregivers who provide Alzheimer care at home so that you can focus on spending quality time with your loved ones. The caregiver offers assistance to help you deal with Alzheimer’s shadowing. Their caregiving expertise provides support and quality care to people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
To help you out, one of the leading agencies offering in home Alzheimer care is right here in Mesa, Arizona. Contact the leading home care service provider, Trinity Medical Staffing and Homecare Agency in Mesa, AZ.
Home care providers help your loved ones cope with shadowing so that you can take care of yourself and your loved one and spend quality time till the end.
To book your caregiver, contact us.
With the help of our team of experienced and qualified experts in international staffing, we will manage your needs from initial contact to the final contract.
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