One of the hardest things to deal with is the personality change.
My mother-in-law got nasty as her mind went, which is not the woman we knew.
My husband was riding her emotional rollercoaster with her and it was tearing him up.
I finally told him that he had to quit doing that. When she was having a good day, great. When she wasn’t, she wasn’t. But do NOT let her take you with her on her melancholy. It was too emotionally draining and we needed to be there for her.
He needed to remember that what we were dealing with was her dementia, not her. And when she tried to guilt trip him over something, he needed to not let her manipulate him.
And yes, you do need a break. NOBODY can do this alone.
So, so true about not getting caught up in the guilt trip.
I wish I would have found the support group earlier...I now know that Mom was starting down the Alzheimer’s Dementia road several years ago and I wouldn’t have taken a few things so personal at times.