When Love Becomes Caregiving: How Illness Changes Relationships

About this episode

This episode explores the emotional and relational challenges faced by caregivers of loved ones with illness or disability.

Over 60 million Americans — or one in four adults — currently serve as family caregivers for partners, parents, or other loved ones with illness or disability. But despite how common this experience is, it can often feel extremely isolating for the caregiver. In between daily tasks like wound care, medications, and bathing, or navigating health care and insurance — many caregivers find themselves grappling with burnout, loneliness, and bigger questions of love, death, and obligation. On this episode, we explore the experience of caregiving, from how illness affects relationships, to the emotional fallout of changing roles, to some of the messy, unspoken frustrations caregivers face. Sociologist Laura Mauldin shares her experience of going from whirlwind romance to caring for a dying partner when she was in her late twenties. We explore the challenges of discussing death at the end of a long illness with a partner. And we talk with a pair of psychologists about the challenges of caring for elderly — and strong-willed — parents. Sociologist Laura Mauldin was in grad school when she fell head over heels in love. A few months into the relationship, her girlfriend’s cancer returned…

People in this episode

Guests: Laura Mauldin, Barry Jacobs, Julia Mayer

Topics covered

• caregiving
• relationships
• illness
• emotional challenges
• burnout
• love
• obligation

Keywords

• caregiving
• relationships
• illness
• burnout
• love
• psychology
• family

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories From the Front Lines of America's Caregiving Crisis

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