It’s so normal, it’s expected. It’s not new, Covid has made it worse, but not introduced it. Emotional exhaustion has been a problem for nurses & doctors for nearly ever.
There’s 25+ years of research, there’s strategies tried and true, tested and re-tested. If you’re hurting because of the work you do as a helping professional, we’ve got loads of resources for you.
Compassion Fatigue
- A Fatigue – simple right? You’re exhausted and no amount of sleep seems to do it.
- Compassion – in this title, compassion is a verb. Not the noun.
So Compassion Fatigue is a fatigue that affects your affectual (emotional) self. Nothing about weakness or lacking skills, lacking anything, except affectual energy reserves. Our energy reserves are in dire straights, depleted beyond belief when we’re in a compassion fatigue state of being.
Secondary / Vicarious Trauma
- Trauma responses. They’re about fear, powerlessness, danger
- A significant shift in how you see yourself in terms of the world around you. Is every thing and everyone crap / stupid / dangerous / risky? Hmmmm….
So trauma responses come on you when you’ve just seen too much of the bad stuff. Too much fear, desperation, too much of the dark side of human nature and life itself.
But that doesn’t mean you have to live with it. There’s help, there’s ways out of that. Sort through these posts and ponder, contemplate, explore what seems helpful for you. Trust your gut on this. It’s not therapy, it’s information and learning.
There is a cost to caring. Professionals who listen to clients’ stories of fear, pain, and suffering may feel similar fear, pain and suffering because they care. Sometimes we feel we are loosing our sense of self to the clients we serve….. often it includes absorbing that suffering as well.
Charles Figley
