Market-specific guidance: This article covers materials from both Korea and the United States. Each piece of information is marked with 🇰🇷 Korea or 🇺🇸 U.S. in the text to indicate which country's context it reflects.
You manage your parents' medications, schedule their doctor's appointments, and spend sleepless nights by their side. When you look in the mirror the next morning, you see an unfamiliar face. You have a name—'caregiver'—but where did the 'you' from before go? You are not alone in feeling this way. Researchers call this phenomenon 'loss of self due to role engulfment,' and they study it as a widespread psychological experience in caregiving settings.
🇺🇸 U.S. In fall 2024, a survey supported by the U.S. Administration for Community Living across 10 states interviewed 4,573 family caregivers. When first asked, only 66% identified themselves as 'caregivers.' After the interviewer explained what caregiving means, the number rose to 74%. This suggests that many people know what they are doing but have not integrated it into their identity as caregivers.
🇺🇸 U.S. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, caregiving can lead to loss of identity, reduced self-esteem, constant worry, and diminished sense of control over one's life. Researchers Skaff and others, in a study of spouses and adult children caring for Alzheimer's patients, found that identity loss due to role engulfment occurs more frequently in spouses, women, and relatively younger caregivers. When caregiving begins to fill every aspect of life, the sense of 'who am I' becomes dim.
🇰🇷 Korea A 2024 study published by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (Journal of Health and Social Affairs, Vol. 44, No. 2) reports that people with caregiving responsibilities experience high levels of depression, stress, isolation, and anxiety in terms of mental health, and endure long-term conflict between work and caregiving responsibilities. 🇰🇷 Korea According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare's 2023 Survey on the Actual Conditions of the Elderly, family members remain the primary caregivers (81.4%), and despite expansion of the public care system, the burden on families remains substantial. The more concentrated caregiving responsibility becomes in one family member, the more rapidly that person's individual identity tends to diminish.
As role engulfment deepens, caregivers gradually let go of the elements that made them 'themselves'—their hobbies, friendships, professional identity, and health management. This is not weakness. It is a signal that the weight of caregiving responsibility is that heavy. The academic community calls this state 'role engulfment,' and researchers have long tracked the pathway through which identity loss eventually leads to burnout and depression.
So how can you protect 'you'? Researchers focus on 'role rotation.' Even for brief periods during the day, stepping away from the caregiver role and returning to who you were before—through a walk, reading, a quick call with an old friend, or ten minutes alone with a cup of coffee—has real practical value in maintaining your sense of agency and personal priorities. It does not have to be a grand or perfect break. 🇺🇸 U.S. A 2023 AARP survey (A Look at U.S. Caregivers' Mental Health) reports that caregivers who find meaning and purpose in caregiving also maintain a more positive sense of self. Caregiving itself does not destroy identity; the danger emerges when caregiving alone remains and everything else disappears.
If you have begun to define yourself only as a 'caregiver,' that is the signal you should examine first. When you maintain a plural identity—'I am a caregiver, and I am also ○○'—you can be there for your loved ones longer and more healthily. Returning your own name to yourself: that is where caregiver wellness begins. Sierra Care Advisor is here to walk alongside you on this journey.
Sources: U.S. Administration for Community Living and UMass Boston, Family Caregiver Self-Awareness Survey (2024, Nadash et al., Gerontologist); Family Caregiver Alliance, Caregiver Health materials (caregiver.org); Skaff & Pearlin, "Caregiving: role engulfment and the loss of self," The Gerontologist, 1992; Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, "Family Caregiving Youth: Reconstruction of Daily Life and Emotional Experience," Journal of Health and Social Affairs 44(2), 2024; Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2023 Survey on the Actual Conditions of the Elderly—Press Release (October 2024); AARP, A Look at U.S. Caregivers' Mental Health (2023).
Note: This article was compiled by AI from the sources cited above. We strive for accuracy, but for decisions about your specific situation, please confirm the latest guidance from a professional or the relevant agency.