Care and Capacity with Lisa Zawrotny
In this episode of How to Deal When the Shit Gets Real, Lisa Zawrotny shares what it’s like to be both a caregiver and a sandwich caregiver — balancing the needs of others while trying not to lose yourself in the process.
After her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Lisa found herself navigating not just caregiving responsibilities, but the emotional weight of anticipatory grief and burnout.
This conversation is about capacity, boundaries, and redefining what it means to keep going when life gets heavy.
What It Means to Be a Sandwich Caregiver
Being a sandwich caregiver means supporting multiple people at once — often while trying to hold your own life together.
Lisa explains how this role can feel invisible, overwhelming, and constant. It requires emotional, physical, and mental energy that often goes unrecognized.
We discuss:
The reality of balancing caregiving responsibilities
Emotional strain and role overload
The pressure to “handle everything”
Caregiving is not just what you do. It’s something you carry.
Caring for a Parent with Alzheimer’s
An Alzheimer’s diagnosis changes everything.
Lisa shares what it’s like to care for her mother while watching her change over time. This kind of caregiving brings a unique emotional complexity — you are present, but you are also grieving.
We talk about:
Supporting a parent through cognitive decline
Navigating changing relationships
The emotional toll of memory loss
Understanding Anticipatory Grief
Anticipatory grief is the grief that comes before loss.
It shows up in quiet moments, in subtle changes, and in the realization that things are not the same as they once were.
Lisa opens up about how anticipatory grief affects caregivers and how it can be just as heavy as traditional grief.
You are mourning while still showing up.
Burnout and the Myth of Hustle Culture
When you are already carrying emotional weight, burnout doesn’t take much to set in.
Lisa challenges the idea that we should always be doing more, pushing harder, and staying productive at all costs. Hustle culture doesn’t leave room for real life — especially not for caregiving, grief, or healing.
We explore:
Recognizing burnout before it consumes you
Why rest is not a luxury
Redefining productivity
Creating space for your own needs
Giving Yourself Permission to Have Limits
One of the most important takeaways from this conversation is permission.
Permission to rest.
Permission to not do it all.
Permission to acknowledge that your capacity is not unlimited.
Caregiving requires compassion — and that includes compassion for yourself.
