Compassion fatigue and burnout have emerged as significant workplace trends in recent years. But for those of us in helping or caregiving roles, we’ve been all too familiar with the impact of these responsibilities for a long time now.
Compassion fatigue, also known as secondary traumatic stress, refers to the physical, emotional, and psychological impact of serving in a helping role.
Individuals who are regularly exposed to others’ pain, hardship, and trauma are more likely to experience compassion fatigue. They may be personal caregivers, who provide support to family members with disabilities or debilitating illnesses, or work in a professional or volunteer capacity within fields such as medical and mental health, humanitarian aid and emergency response, criminal justice and corrections, first responders, and non-profits.
For some, the cumulative effect of stories of heartbreak, loss, and trauma can take its toll over time. For others, there may be one or two stories that hit particularly close to home. At times, our personal lives can make it even more challenging to rely on our usual coping strategies. Most often, it’s a mix of everything.
Why Does Addressing Compassion Fatigue Matter?
For too long, compassion fatigue has been viewed as an “occupational hazard,” merely one of the givens of mission-driven work. We may be expected by society, our communities, industries, and workplaces to accept challenging circumstances, including heavier workloads without compensation, reduced flexibility for time off, and less organizational support, because we love what we do and are driven by something deeper than benefits and resources.
But it’s not only a “them” problem: As helping professionals, we can fall into this trap too, keenly aware that our lives are still privileged relative to the communities with whom we work. In other words, who are we to struggle? It can also be difficult to come to terms with the personal impact of caregiving work when we are used to being strong and “holding it together.”
For all of these reasons, it’s common for people in helping roles to sideline their own needs for so long that they eventually experience burnout and may leave this work altogether.
It’s time to do away with this harmful, invalidating rhetoric. The bottom line is we cannot show up for the communities we serve, our personal networks, or ourselves when we are experiencing significant compassion fatigue. Instead, we show up in the world as shadows of ourselves, downtrodden, disconnected from our values, and feeling and acting in ways that can make us even more self-critical.
We need to take a hard look at compassion fatigue and the realities of helping roles. First – and most importantly – experiencing emotional, cognitive, and/or physiological responses to this kind of service is completely normal. We are not robots, and people in helping roles are not immune to the effects of holding others’ pain and suffering. In fact, the same incredible things about you that brought you to this mission are the same things that allow you to feel for and be present with the communities you serve.
Rather than try to avoid or push down the natural feelings that may come up for us, maintaining awareness, engaging in self-care, and knowing when to seek support are critical to being able to show up for yourself and the communities you are passionate about helping.
Signs & Symptoms of Compassion Fatigue
Physical
headaches
difficulty sleeping
muscle tension
persistent illness, like coughs or colds that are recurring and/or take longer to heal
Emotional
drastic shifts in mood, or “mood swings”
pessimism and/or cynicism
irritability, or a “short fuse”
sadness and apathy
feeling overwhelmed and helpless
anxiety
Cognitive
difficulty concentrating or being productive
nightmares
shifts in your thoughts or beliefs about the world (e.g., starting to believe that the world is a dangerous or hopeless place)
Behavioral
attempts at self-medication, such as eating or drinking more than you would like to, or spending excess amounts of time scrolling through socials
isolation from people and activities you normally enjoy
Are your experiences over the past few months or years starting to click into place? Reach out to CVB Living today to determine whether compassion fatigue may explain what you’ve been going through.
For information on strategies to address compassion fatigue, see Caring for Ourselves.
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