Last week we looked at Compassion fatigue and some of the consequences for the people that suffer it. If you haven’t had a look at last week’s blog you can find the link here . Compassion fatigue is basically the secondary traumatic stress that many people suffer when helping people that are directly suffering from traumatic stress on a first-hand basis. It is an unfortunate phenomenon that is a cruel price to pay for being kind and compassionate to others.
I hope that me bringing light to this issue does not deter people from seeking out careers where they are exposed to people suffering trauma or, involved in the mental health industry where they are constantly exposed to people that are suffering from depression or anxiety. You need to have thick skin to work in these situations, but the world needs people like you, so keep it up.
Let’s explore some strategies for coping with compassion fatigue. Research was conducted on critical care and emergency nurses using coping strategies such as problem solving, seeking social support and avoidance. Nurses that were able to employ these strategies well suffered less from compassion fatigue than their colleagues. These nurses were able to experience Compassion satisfaction, rather than Compassion fatigue.
Compassion satisfaction is all about the great feelings that people get for helping people in need. Ways to experience more satisfaction than fatigue can come from self-care. Share the load with other people and prioritize your work challenges. Make sure that you have enough time to de-stress, sleep and eat. Mix up your routine to prevent yourself from going on autopilot. Focus on the positive things that you have done and learn from your mistakes. There are plenty more strategies out there, but one that is very important is to talk to someone that you trust about your issues.
Feel free to contact me for a session. The first session is free.
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6456805/
https://njcommonground.org/what-is-compassion-satisfaction-and-how-can-it-help/
