This article about conflict with family and friends isn’t directed specifically at caregivers but it should be:
Common Form of Expression Doubles Risk of Death
Here is what they found:
“The researchers estimated that that a participant’s risk of death increased by 50 to 100 percent when children or partners caused frequent worry or made excessive demands. When the researchers then studied how arguing frequently impacted the participant’s mortality, they found that when participants argued frequently with anyone in their social circle their risk of death doubled or tripled.”
Why? Part of the answer lies in the nature of the arguments that turn out to be intensely inflammatory and potentially lethal:
1. Delusions of being right
2. Emotional insistence on the impossible
3. The magic of blaming
Caregivers don’t control much, but they do control how they approach conflict. This article highlights how good intentions can suddenly boomerang with the wrong approach.