Caring for others helps me cope

Since May I have been working at a senior home as a caregiver. It’s hard work and the hours are hard on me. I go from 8 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts, from day to nights. It’s hard to get adjusted too. I see people die who I care for and I also see them suffer as their illness’s get worse, yet I never let the death haunt me or upset me. I care about these people a lot and do all I can for them. From my time there I have already become some of the residents favorite worker and gained the trust of most of them. I never knew how I would do in this field on my own and I have to say I’m pretty good at it. I find when I care for these people it helps me feel better about myself as a person. Since I started working in this field I’ve become more empathetic and selfless. I don’t spend all my time alone or in my room playing video games. I go out and do things now and feel more confident with how I do things. I go and see people too on my day offs now instead of staying inside.

To be honest I would like to get back in the dating world too. Yet I don’t feel like I’m rushing myself like I used too. Like for example I don’t even feel the need to actively search, if the right person comes up I’ll see how it goes. That is basically how I see it. I just want to care for someone in that way but I don’t have the want for it immediately kind of thing.

I don’t even get haunted by my past or anything anymore. I used to be up late at night because of my mind telling me stuff. I also get good sleeping hours now because I have been taking melatonin every night and it has been helping me a lot.

Lastly I have not been medicated for 5 months now. I still have symptoms of schizophrenia where I see things or hear things. Most of the time I hear alarms or something or I see stuff move or something of the such. I can shrug off the visual but sometimes the auditory annoy me. Nothing to extreme though. For the most part I am doing amazing and I am also going to counselling instead of medication I talked to my doctor about it.

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You sound like a good hearted person to me, I doubt you’d have too much trouble attracting the right person when the time is right.

Hey…keep on top of those symptoms…you run into trouble you may need some medications.

You sound pretty good at your function that is cool…try the internet dating sites…for nothing okcupid wasnt’ too bad but that was ten year ago…the internet may have changed since then and there’s probably other sites so that is a place to start!

Seriously though! Normal people don’t hallucinate…that coudl really be an issue for you later! Get onto a shrink…doctors are pretty clueless I’ve found!

That’s awesome that you like the work! I used to work in group homes for adults with developmental disabilities and absolutely loved it. If I’m ever well enough to work again I want to go back to it.

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I love you @dannyboy6657