7 Tips for Reducing Stress When You Have Alzheimer’s Disease

Wendy Henderson avatar

by Wendy Henderson |

Share this article:

Share article via email

Living with a chronic illness like Alzheimer’s disease can bring a lot of stress and anxiety but as with all illnesses, stress can make symptoms worse and negatively impact overall health. It’s impossible to completely avoid it, but there are ways to better manage stressful situations, help to offset the effects, and improve quality of life.

We’ve put together a list of ways to reduce stress with help from the Alzheimer’s Association.

Identifying the sources of your stress brings you one step closer to eliminating or reducing these situations. These triggers will be different for each Alzheimer’s patient but recognizing and avoiding potential triggers where possible, will help improve your mental health.

Read our six tips to help to make life easier if you have Alzheimer’s disease.

Once you’ve established things you find most stressful, talk to your care providers, doctors and family to see what they can do to help you avoid those situations or make them less stressful.

Better understand Alzheimer’s disease in just three minutes.

Explain to others what your boundaries and limits are so they don’t inadvertently put you in stressful situations.

Understand how Alzheimer’s disease affects the brain here.

Use stress relief tactics to help minimize anxiety-filled situations. This could include deep breathing, walking around, listening to music, watching television, meditation, working in your garden, having a bath…whatever helps to make you feel calmer.

Discover the major difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Talking to people about what your triggers are is vital. The more open and honest you are, the more people can do to ensure you’re protected as much as possible from potential triggers.

Menopause may be one reason why women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than men. 

In the majority of cases, you can remove yourself from a stressful situation. This may simply mean leaving the room if you’re feeling overwhelmed. If you are doing a task that you’re finding stressful like filling out forms, put it down and come back to it later.

Alzheimer’s disease and the magic of music. Find out more here.

Sleeping well will naturally help you cope better with stressful situations. If you don’t get enough sleep you’ll be overtired and more likely to become upset. Don’t try and do too much, listen to your body and if you’re tired, stop and rest.

Discover some tips for caregivers of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute or professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.