looking after yourself....theory v practice

Hi

Well, we all know how important it is to look after ourselves as carers. Except when things are hectic and we put ourselves last.

What worries me is that this week I am feeling quite out of control and all over the shop, unable to concentrate on work and having 'memory lapses' and generally just feeling like I did before I ended up having a nervous breakdown.

Trouble is - I have to keep going, keep working, following up on issues with my husband, looking after him, managing the house, the finances, the future. There is no respite.

What do you guys do in these instances? How do you stop feeling the need to firefight everything all at once? And when your own brain starts to let you down, how do you focus on what is important? Everything is suddenly all important. How do you find the strength to go on and not get all fractious and overly sensitive and over reacting and all the rest?

I need to prioritise myself soon, but can't see anything happening in the immediate future.

we had our meeting with the centrelink dr and she talked about the need for less stress in his life, and he talked about being worried by me being worried by things that i thought i was shielding him from, and of course that worries me. And also she talked about him being in recovery - 9 years later!! is that the case?

You know when you are doing the best you can and suddenly something happens to make you rethink and you realise you need to step up a further level but your energies just aren't there as yet. And then you realise you are focusing solely and intensely on only one thing at a time, and losing a couple of weeks (seriously) and then fretting about things like 'we don't eat enough green vegetables' which i clearly remember as one of the concerns before my breakdown... macro and micro concerns, all at once.

I know someone will suggest a pyschcologist but honestly we can't afford that at present. i still haven't paid the last one and I don't have the time to go to the drs and set something up bulk bill.

Any advice greatly appreciated, or pointers to otehr discussions/literature!

Thanks!