I'm hoping someone can offer up some advice....I think that in order for everyone to understand my dilemma, I need to give a little background information on the situation first so here goes. Several years ago my father's health began to suffer. In order to help my mother out, I moved back in with my parents. Everything was generally o.k. until recently when his health took a pretty serious turn. Since this has happened, I've been left largely in charge of all of the aspects of his care (believe me they're extensive) because my mother works. To make matters worse, my grandmother, whose health isn't the best either, has moved in as well and I've been left to care for her too.

My dilemma is that I have empathic abilities and I'm really concerned that all of the issues related to my father's and grandmother's health is causing me to behave in seriously uncharacteristic ways (i.e. really irritable and negative). I've gotten to the point where I usually feel emotionally, mentally, and physically drained to the point where I feel like I could just remain bedridden for months.

One of my friends has suggested meditation but I find it extremely difficult to find the time to do it with all of my obligations (I'm in grad school on top of everything else.) and often fall asleep when I do find the time to attempt it.

I've read about raising one's energy or possibly blocking the energy from others if you're an empath but am unsure how to go about doing these things.

Has anyone tried either of these things, and if so, how do you do it and how effective did you find them? I'd also be open to any other suggestions because I'm pretty desperate at this point!!

Thanks in advance for all your help!!

Hope this helps:

try Googling developing your empathy + protection

EDIT by moderator

sounds like you need a break. i can't remember off the top of my head but there is help out there for stressed caregivers. get some time for yourself where you can just say "bug off world"

i have felt like this too gone throu similar things
life throws at you what you can handle
you defently have alot on your plate
i played online games it seemed to take me away from some things
but these people are heavliy dependent on you so you might be stuck for awhile
find something you can do in between times that does not affect your care
take a nice long hot bath might help too
i would say take a break etc but these people seem to really need you
your basicly emotionally drained i go throu cycles like this often
usually something i like doing takes it away like playing online games etc

Blocking is a matter of forming an image of a protective barrier around you. For some people that may be a wall, a bubble, or light. That part is up to the individual. I think you need more than that though. Living there you are emersed in it. You don't have the space to recover and recharge. You need to find time to be seperated from the situation. How much time depends on what you need to cope. It may seem a bit uncaring, but you need to remember that you can't be of help to them if you can't hold yourself together. The first rule of any rescue is not to become another victim.

I put huge amounts of time in to helping other people and have a very difficult time letting go of something that I feel responsible for. That often causes me to stay in situations that are very damaging to me and to let people take too much from me or get too involved in their emotions.