A grounded guide for caregivers on how to care for someone who doesn’t respect boundaries. Five practical strategies to stay steady, hold firm, and protect your emotional energy without escalating conflict.

Learn how to cope with a loved one who’s never satisfied as a caregiver. Practical ways to protect your emotional health and set boundaries while still caring with compassion.

When Every Day Feels Like an Emergency Caregivers of loved ones who are frequently in crisis often experience relentless emotional pressure. Every call, every request, and every mood swing can feel like an emergency, leaving you drained and on edge. This constant hypervigilance impacts your mental, emotional, and physical health, making it hard to focus, make decisions, or enjoy life outside of caregiving. Recognizing that this is a real problem — and not a personal failing —

Caregiving will crack you open. It will stir your heart with tenderness and drag it through moments of resentment. One moment you’ll feel an overwhelming sense of compassion, and the next, a quiet, urgent wish for escape.

Let’s talk about the guilt. That deep, nagging feeling that creeps in the moment you even think about asking for help. The voice that whispers, You should be able to handle this. The one that tells you good caregivers don’t need breaks, that asking for help means you’re failing somehow. That voice? It’s lying to you.

My world has become so small since I became my mother’s caregiver. I didn’t notice it at first—it happened gradually, the way water slowly erodes stone.

Looking after my mom takes a toll on me every single day—on my time, my energy, my emotions, my sanity. Some of it is obvious.

For the past two years, I have found myself in a role I never expected—sole caregiver to my mother. She is 81. For most of her life, she...