One of the most difficult situations you may face is to decide that your loved ones need to move into an assisted living community. This realization may give you undesirable feelings including sadness, anxiety and guilt, but you have to learn how to accept that they need to be taken care of a trained team. Assisted living in Lutz, FL is sure to give proper attention to your loved ones. With this thought, it is not a guarantee that you can overcome your feelings of guilt easily. So here are some of the ways you can lessen the burden that you feel as you decide to transition family members to an assisted living community.
Honesty Matters a Lot
Some guilt feelings may come from lack of clear communication between you and your loved ones. It may be caused by not being clear about the reason why they need to transition into assisted living. It can also root from not disclosing important facts from your loved ones. Once you are able to explain clearly the situation to them, you’ll definitely feel less guilty when the transition happens.
Share the Process
It is good to be able to lay out all the cards and recognized your loved one’s preferences and feelings about the matter. Therefore, it is best if the whole family openly talks about it, and maybe when everyone gets to share their opinion on the matter, the burden may not be too heavy for you to carry. It would also be great to know when family members mutually agree on the decision.
Revising Guilty Self-Talk
You start feeling guilty once you realize that there’s no other option but for your loved ones to move into assisted living. The guilty nagging in your head may become worse as you finally make a decision, and at the worse, it may escalate once they have moved out of the home. For days, you may hear the voice in your head muttering negative self-talk filled with guilt. The only way to overcome it is to reframe your thoughts and revise your guilt self-talk into something positive or at the very least, neutral thoughts.
A guilty self-talk may go like this: “I have failed my mom/dad because I cannot take care of them. I am a useless son/daughter.”
A revised self-talk is: “Mom/Dad needs a well-trained person to assist her/him with his needs and that is something beyond my skills/abilities. At the assisted living community, mom/dad will receive professional care.
Have a Support System
You are not alone in this ordeal. You have the rest of your family to support you. You also have the team from the assisted living community as your partner in this situation. You can trust that they will take good care of your loved one.
Feelings of guilt happen when you carry it by yourself. Talk it out, and share it with others. Never do self-guilt talk. When things are overbearing, know that there is someone out there who will support you with this crucial decision for your loved ones.
