I’ve been caring for my husband for about 3 years now. He has various learning difficulties and needs a lot of support both day to day and in terms of administrative tasks. I also work full time. I’m lucky to share the caring role with his mum, who supports us massively. She’s been doing it since he was a baby and knows what she’s doing. Currently working through a PIP claim (moving from DLA on a lifelong award) and we are at appeal level. I’m finding it a bit much to cope with mentally at the moment. I don’t find the day to day caring too bad because that is just who my husband is but its the extra bits of administration that I finding difficult to cope with. I can’t believe how many hurdles we have to get over to get his most basic needs met. My job is very full on and with the demands of caring, I’m exhausted all the time. My mental health is pretty bad. I’m having lots of panic attacks and bad anxiety. I’ve spoken to my friends about it, but they have no experience, and whilst sympathetic, don’t really understand. I don’t feel like I have much time to rest or look after myself or do things that I enjoy doing, especially with lockdown. Not looking for advice particularly but just to connect with others who understand what it feels like.
You might find some advice helpful for filling in claim forms: it’s not something that I’m particularly knowledgeable about, but others here are and could point you in the right direction, (possibly C.A.B, if they’re currently operational).
All those hurdles are there for a reason, for everyone that gives up, the Social Servoces have saved themselves some money. Don’t let it be you.
Do please find some time for yourself, it’s incredibly important and will make a huge difference.
It would help if you could explain a bit more about his learning difficulty?
Hello RJM
Welcome to the forum, you’re in the right place to meet people who understand what you’re living with and how it affects you.
We’re running weekly online meet ups which you’d be very welcome to join. They’re very informal sessions for carers to chat and take some time for themselves. Do come along if you can, sign up details are here:
https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advic … ne-meetups
Best wishes
Ingrid