Welcome back to the blog! It’s Kim here.
Are you tired? Mentally drained? Ready to give up on everything and everyone? You might be experiencing compassion fatigue. The term compassion fatigue is so often misunderstood, and it’s hard to identify symptoms. In this video I share some examples of what compassion fatigue looks like so you can better understand what you might be going through. Watch the video or read down below to learn more about compassion fatigue and how to help it.
Before we get into it, I want to share this quote by C. Figley where he paints a pretty clear picture of what compassion fatigue looks like.
“We have not been directly exposed to the trauma scene, but we hear the story told with such intensity, or we hear similar stories so often, or we have the gift and curse of extreme empathy and we suffer. We feel the feelings of our clients. We experience their fears. We dream their dreams. Eventually, we lose a certain spark of optimism, humor, and hope. We tire. We aren’t sick, but we aren’t ourselves.”
What is compassion fatigue?
Before I throw the technical stuff at you, let’s first establish that compassion fatigue can happen to anyone. While the quote I just mentioned talks about clients, it’s important to know that this can affect anyone who is a caretaker in any sense of the word. Compassion fatigue doesn’t solely happen at work. It can happen to anyone who overuses their skill for compassion and doesn’t take the necessary time to heal from that overuse.
When you experience compassion fatigue you tend to shut off from the world. You become disconnected, you don’t want to be around people, and you withdraw from the things you care about. Think of it like this: you walk around as if you’re an open wound, and everyone around you is a cheese grater. You’re constantly worried about getting hurt.
After a certain period of time, compassion fatigue pushes you to not care anymore. When you lose your ability to have empathy for others, it’s normally caused by taking on so much of others’ pain, it results in causing you pain.
Symptoms of compassion fatigue
When we look at compassion fatigue symptoms, we see a lot of similarity with symptoms of burnout. Compassion fatigue tends to be associated with a number of terms including empathy fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout. But the problem here is that each of these terms mean something different. In this blog we’re focusing on compassion fatigue, but this article helps to explain the difference between all of these terms.
Similar symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout include emotional exhaustion, mental exhaustion, physical exhaustion, a reduced sense of personal accomplishment, and decreased interactions with others.
Symptoms that are specific to compassion fatigue include issues with sleeping, deep emotional changes, and difficulty concentrating or making sound judgements. To put it simply, when you experience compassion fatigue you start acting really differently. You might begin to say or do things you normally wouldn’t, you can feel a loss in self-worth, and you might even lose hope in your belief in humanity. Depression or possible PTSD can erupt because you’re experiencing vicarious stress, or hearing traumatizing stories.
Resources to help with compassion fatigue
- When it comes to experiencing compassion fatigue, the number one tip out there is to rest! Yes, rest. If you’re like me and you’re a natural caregiver, you know how hard it is to just rest. But if we don’t learn to rest, we’ll eventually lose ourselves.
- Compassion fatigue often comes with guilt. You need to be able to move on from the guilt, and this involves reaching out to get help for yourself. Again, hard for caregivers to do. But necessary.
- Learning to cope with compassion fatigue takes some time. Check out Doctor Frank Ochberg’s article “When Helping Hurts” for some great advice on how to go through the process of healing.
- This article by Trisha Dowling will walk you through compassion training and how it can help you come out of compassion fatigue, and avoid it in the future.
Take care of yourself as well as others
Don’t forget that you need care-taking too. If you’re struggling with compassion fatigue, reach out to us. We’re here to help you out of it.
About Dochas Psychological
Dochas Psychological Services is a well-established and trusted therapy clinic located in Spruce Grove, Alberta. At Dochas we value the idea that everyone deserves a safe space. Through connection and education, our team works hard to build a trustworthy relationship with each of our clients. It is our goal to create a community for our clients to feel like they belong.
Disclaimer
Information provided through Dochas Psychological Services blogs or vlogs are meant for educational purposes only. They are NOT medical or mental health advice. You can read more about our disclaimer here.
