Are You Affected By Compassion Fatigue?

By Daniel A. Feerst, BSW, MSW, LISW-CP Publisher, Frontline Employee EAP and Workplace Wellness Newsletter

Working in a job where you care for others — whether you are a nurse, a firefighter, a social worker, a law enforcement officer, or something else — can be very rewarding. There is no better feeling in the world than helping someone who needs help and making a difference in their life.

However, anyone who works in this kind of field also knows that caring has a cost.

What is compassion fatigue?

Compassion fatigue is a condition commonly experienced by emergency health care workers, mental health providers, caregivers of loved ones, first responders, and others who work with trauma victims. It refers to the gradual lessening of the ability to empathize or feel compassion for others. The information presented here is to help you become aware of this syndrome, avoid discouragement and guilt, and most importantly, seek help and support.

Compassion fatigue is also known as secondary traumatic stress (STS) or vicarious trauma because it involves frequent contact with victims of trauma. Carers and other professionals then absorb the trauma and suffering of those they are helping and begin to experience some of the same symptoms. This could be compared to the feeling of having a “heavy heart,” or overwhelming sadness and exhaustion.

Aside from health care workers and other professionals who care for other people as part of their job, family members and informal caregivers to people with chronic illness or trauma can experience compassion fatigue. This condition has a range of symptoms that vary among carers and caregivers, but commonly manifest with a combination of physical and emotional effects.

Signs of the condition include:

? Flashbacks or nightmares about traumatic events you witnessed or heard about

? Feelings of cynicism and hopelessness about your job

? Overwhelming preoccupation with a particular individual or case

? Anger at how things are and your inability to change them or a need to place blame

? Numbness, reduced ability to feel sympathy and empathy, or feelings of helplessness

? Lowered concentration, difficulty remembering things, or difficulty performing everyday tasks

? Mood swings and general irritability, or physical or emotional exhaustion

? Emotional withdrawal from relationships

? Misuse of drugs, alcohol, or food

? Physical ailments such as fatigue, headaches, aches and pains, gastrointestinal problems, hypertension, weight loss, and trouble sleeping

? Mental ailments such as depression, anxiety, lack of self-satisfaction, and feelings of guilt

?  Work performance issues, a breakdown in work relationships, tardiness, absenteeism, or workaholism

Causes of compassion fatigue

Compassion fatigue can develop when working with anyone who has been gravely harmed physically or emotionally. This type of work requires a high level of empathy, and by opening your heart to the people you are helping, you absorb their emotions, pain, and trauma. This burden can build over time until it becomes overwhelming.

As a nurse, social worker, firefighter, law enforcement officer, or informal caregiver, you are exposed to others' suffering and trauma on a daily basis. When dealing with someone who is in pain, afraid, or otherwise unwell, you empathize with them, which allows you to understand what they are feeling and how to best help them. Additionally, you feel a natural concern for the person you are helping and want the best for them.

The development of compassion fatigue may involve these steps:

1. Exposure to the suffering and trauma of others, combined with your own empathy and concern for others’ well-being, triggers an empathic response.

2. Depending on the outcome of the case, you may feel a sense of satisfaction from helping someone, or sadness for them if the outcome is negative. At the same time, you may feel a sense of detachment as the case progresses.

3. As a result of all or a combination of these, you begin to experience residual compassion stress.

4. The residual compassion stress builds up. This, combined with prolonged exposure to suffering, the traumatic memories you have absorbed from the people you are helping, and other life demands, manifests in compassion fatigue.

Over time, this continual exposure to and empathy with victims of trauma will take its toll and compassion fatigue develops. However, compassion fatigue can take weeks, months, or even years to surface. Although compassion fatigue develops gradually, it is a chronic condition that can have severe impacts on the sufferer.

Common misconceptions about compassion fatigue

Compassion fatigue is a relatively new psychological diagnosis, first identified by Carla Joinson in 1992 in her study of hospital nurses. This means that there remains a great deal of misunderstanding around the condition.

One common source of confusion relates to compassion fatigue compared to burnout. Some people throw the two terms together, but they are two separate conditions with some important differences. Burnout is caused by stressful, high-pressure, or otherwise negative work situations, resulting in displeasure from work or colleagues, frustration, and cynicism. Compassion fatigue, on the other hand, comes from long-term exposure to pain, suffering, or trauma, resulting in physical and emotional exhaustion.

It can also be easy to confuse compassion fatigue with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as many of the symptoms overlap. This is because sufferers of compassion fatigue can take on the trauma of the people that they work with, and therefore experience the same symptoms. The key difference is that PTSD occurs in people who have directly experienced trauma, while compassion fatigue is secondary trauma experienced by those caring for trauma victims.

Tips for overcoming compassion fatigue

Compassion fatigue is a reality for carers and professionals working with victims of trauma, or anyone experiencing pain, illness, or suffering. Overcoming compassion fatigue centers around self-care, through a combination of recovery and rejuvenation.

Here are some specific things you can do to overcome compassion fatigue:

? Schedule a regular activity you enjoy that removes you from your daily stressors and allows you to mentally unwind.

? Find a daily outlet for your emotions, like writing down your feelings or talking to co-workers about the job-related emotions you struggle with.

? Don’t let work bleed into your personal time. Make sure when you are finished with your shift that you turn off from work physically and mentally. Have a set ritual to finish your workday to signal it is time to relax.

? Talk to friends and family about how they can help you cope.

? Celebrate successes and mourn sorrows with your co-workers.

? Join a support group with people who face similar emotional challenges in their jobs.

? Seek professional help. Talk to a therapist or a mental health professional to help you to process your feelings.

? Exercise regularly and eat a healthy diet.

? Make sure that you get enough sleep.

? Explore meditation, prayer, and other activities that help you relax and get centered.

? Know when to quit. Your physical, mental, and emotional reserves aren’t unlimited. Take a mental health day or schedule a vacation when you’re feeling run-down or burned out.

? Reconnect with people and activities that are meaningful to you. The things you put on the back burner are often the ones that have the most restorative effects once you turn your attention toward them again.

? Maintain a healthy work-life balance by taking up or rediscovering an old hobby, such as practicing a sport, learning a musical instrument, or doing something creative.

Avoiding compassion fatigue

Though it is important to overcome and recover from compassion fatigue, it is equally important to prevent it from recurring, or from manifesting in the first place. The strategies mentioned above can help you avoid compassion fatigue, but again, this largely comes down to self-care.

In order to avoid compassion fatigue, it is important to develop a holistic, comprehensive self-care plan that will promote your well-being in all areas of your work and your life.

This self-care plan should cover six core areas:

1. Physical health: getting regular exercise, healthy eating, and getting quality sleep
2. Psychological health: journaling and practicing mindfulness
3. Emotional health: spending time with loved ones and finding an emotional outlet
4. Spiritual health: spending time in nature
5. Professional health: having peer support and setting work/life boundaries
6. Relational health: seeking support from your partner, friends, or family members

Above all, recovering from or avoiding compassion fatigue means prioritizing yourself. If you work in a profession where you help others, you are likely accustomed to putting others’ needs above your own.

Many care workers are also wired in such a way that it makes it difficult to put themselves first, whether because of guilt or a sense of obligation. Your employee assistance program (EAP) can help. EAPs are well-versed in understanding compassion fatigue, and your employee assistance professional will be relentless at finding the confidential and professional support and help you need--and deserve--to manage compassion fatigue successfully.

In the end, it is important to remember that you will be best equipped to make a difference for someone else when you’re healthy, energized, and emotionally thriving yourself.

(You can find reproducible handouts and resources about compassion fatigue, codependency, assertiveness, letting go, finding more meaning in your job, emotional intelligence, and many directly and indirectly related topics close to this one at https://WorkExcel.com

FrontlineEmployee.com EAP and HR Newsletter often addresses compassion fatigue in its workplace wellness content. Get a quote for this editable and customizable internal communication product here.