Maintaining Resilience in the Face of Compassion Fatigue
Compassion Fatigue. It is REAL.
WHAT IS COMPASSION FATIGUE AKA VICARIOUS TRAUMATIZATION?
Emotional strain associated with exposure to working with people who have experienced traumatic events. This is becoming a huge problem for healthcare workers — including mental health providers — during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you (or a loved one) work in a helping profession or are caretaking for someone, you (or they) may well be experiencing compassion fatigue. It is important to know what signs to watch for and how to cope with this condition so you can navigate this challenging time as effectively as possible and minimize the extent to which compassion fatigue affects your emotional and physical well-being.
SIGNS TO WATCH FOR:
Isolating yourself, loss of pleasure, trouble concentrating, feeling burdened by others’ suffering, blaming others for their suffering, physical and mental fatigue, insomnia, “bottling up” emotions, nightmares, feelings of hopelessness or powerlessness, poor self-care, DENIAL. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of signs and symptoms and that most people experiencing compassion fatigue will not experience ALL of those symptoms. If you’d like to take a measure of compassion fatigue to better gauge the extent to which you may be experiencing this phenomenon, check out proqol.org.
MAINTAIN RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF COMPASSION FATIGUE:
Try out some of the tips below to more effectively cope with compassion fatigue. The more you take care of YOU the better you will be able to take care of others.
Educate yourself about this problem
Practice ACCEPTANCE of the path you’re on
Talk to those who support and validate you
Reflect on and assert your personal boundaries
Be kind to yourself
Express your needs to others
Actively work to change your environment where possible
Prioritize sleep, light exercise, and healthy eating
Focus on one thing you did well each day
Learn from—rather than ruminate on—your mistakes
Develop rituals to help you switch to “off” mode when not at work
Take a break. Yes, take time off. Take care of YOU first. Recharge your batteries.
