Journaling Prompts for Caregiver Burnout
Caring for someone you love—a parent, a partner, a child with complex needs—is one of the most demanding things a person can do, and one of the least recognized. Caregiver burnout is real, and it comes with a particular guilt that makes it worse: you're exhausted by the person you love, and you're ashamed of that exhaustion. But love and depletion can coexist. Needing rest isn't a betrayal of the person you're caring for. It's a survival necessity. Writing can give you a place to put the feelings you can't put anywhere else—without having to protect anyone from them.
Journaling Prompts
What does your exhaustion actually feel like right now—physically, emotionally, mentally? Try to describe it without immediately following it with 'but I know they have it harder.'
What have you given up—work, relationships, hobbies, time, your sense of self—since caregiving became your reality? Make an honest accounting of the losses.
What do you wish someone would ask you, or offer you, that no one has? What support do you need that you've been unable to ask for, and what's making it hard to ask?
What is one small thing you could do this week—just this week—that would be entirely for you? Something that has nothing to do with caregiving. What would it take to actually do it?
What is your relationship with the person you're caring for actually like right now? Are you able to see them as a person, or have they become a role? Write about that honestly, without judgment.