Don’t give up the struggle…. let people know you need help!

This can be a tough old life with Parkies. Not just for the Parkies person themselves but also for their partner and often for their wider family/whanau group too.

As someone who fiercely holds onto their independence, it is sometimes difficult to put my hand up and say that I am struggling. However, I have sought out and actively engaged with some formal supports this week and will continue to work with them, to try to make life better for myself. In doing so, I will also – I hope – ease the pressure on my poor husband and he will feel supported too.

I have started seeing a Health Coach via my GP, which is a free service. We set goals and meet weekly to see how I am doing. It is about trying to find ways to make my life a healthier one and to let go of some unhealthy habits I have formed. I feel I am doing OK, having just started but I am determined to continue to be a healthier me. I am also going to see a Health Improvement Navigator, who I hope will give me some ways of coping with the many issues that adversely impact my mental health.

At work too, I have been finding it tough and so I have reduced my hours a bit so that I don’t have such a long day. Also, I saw an EAP – Employee assistance Programme – person this week. She is a listening ear when I need it on site and also has given me some names of Counsellors. Both of these options are free to employees. We also talked about some of my background and how it affects me and decided between us that I could do with some Counselling especially in relation to my oldest son’s death and my previous abusive relationship. I think I probably just ‘sucked it up’ and got on after both of these significant events in my life and have never addressed them directly. Hopefully, the Counsellor will be able to help me find a healthy way to deal with these things.

The final thing I have done for myself is following a meeting I facilitated this week. I had set up a ZOOM meeting for a patient family meeting. For some reason, in recent times, I have had difficulty getting into it when I go to try to access it as the meeting convenor. This is the second time it has happened and is very stressful as there is a room full of people all watching. I managed to get it going finally, but it probably took about 15 LONG minutes to do so.

After the meeting I went to the Charge Nurse and explained what had happened. I told her that one of the things that is affected by my Parkies is the speed at which I process information. It can be much slower especially when under pressure. I asked if I could have someone on the team help me to set up ZOOM meetings and start them at the beginning of the meeting. Thankfully, she agreed and now the Ward Clerk has been asked to do this for me. That’s one less stressor in my life!

So, all these supports have been put in place over about two weeks. I’m sure they will be a huge help to me.

So, if you are finding some aspects of life too challenging and stressful, maybe just tell someone and you could have the supports put in place to make life at least a little bit easier.