Caregiving

As a caregiver to my Father, I often had to put aside my role as his daughter and behave as a caregiver. Certain behavior that would trigger a child of the patient, would not trigger a neutral care-giver. Sometimes he repeated things over and over, or completely forgot what I had just said to him. I would get angry, wondering why he never listened to me, or tired of hearing the same thing over and over. Sometimes he acted unkindly or rudely, hurting me. Therapy helped me during those times I got confused and angry about legitimate dementia behavior and couldn’t differentiate between him as my father and as my patient.