What Is Compassion Fatigue?
Emotional labour is one of the most challenging jobs that we do as humans. Not because of the physical toll it can take, which can also be the case, but because it can be never-ending. And when you are a giver, you'll drain yourself completely and then some until you are completely burned out and start to lose your spark.
That's compassion fatigue.
A state that's become much more common in the last several years, so it's important to know what can cause compassion fatigue and how to prevent it so that you can continue to be your best self and not reach that point of burnout.
Compassion fatigue is a form of burnout that comes to caregivers. While we often assume that it’s a result of giving too much, it’s not that we’ve selflessly given too much of ourselves so much as it’s from feeling the ongoing suffering of others and assuming that our efforts are not enough.
The other big factor with compassion fatigue and burnout from being a giver is the style in which you give. Seeing the results of your efforts is one way to combat burnout, which is why certain fields like teaching and medicine lead to higher rates of burnout.
When the turnaround of the humans you’re giving care to is very rapid in which case you don’t get feedback or see the results of whether the support you’ve given helped or not, compassion fatigue can start to kick in.
Give More, But Respect Your Boundaries
Counterintuitively you can give more of yourself without burning out, but you must respect your boundaries. When it comes to giving of yourself, it’s important to respect your boundaries and know your limits.
Selflessly giving all of yourself is not the answer.
You will burn out from following this style of giving.
Even people who give a lot of their extra time to volunteering or other giving work can find that they can manage if they chunk it all together instead of scattering it through the week. By dedicating a large block of time to giving work, you again see the returns from your efforts in the others that you’ve helped and this makes a big difference in your motivation to keep giving and not develop compassion fatigue.
By having some set blocks of time for giving outside of work, or even sticking to the confines of your work hours in your job that requires a lot of emotional labour, you’ll be better able to find time to recover and recharge which is the next point.
Have weekly recovery time
You have to create balance and let yourself recharge and recover too. In performing caregiving, your body is in need of recovery time. Even if you aren't burning out because you've been able to give selflessly, to perform your very best, you need rest and recovery.
If you can't afford the cost or time of doing anything else, sleep is and always will be the recovery superstar, so even making changes to improve sleep by just a little bit can make a difference. And if you are able to make time to get outside for a walk in nature or go to your favourite spa for a float or massage, you'll be positively contributing to the rest and recovery that'll keep you strong for the others you care for.
Know your limits
And also in terms of respecting boundaries and making time for recovery, you have to know your limits.
At the end of the day, Emotional labour is highly rewarding but also very draining. It involves a lot of social connections that you might feel the need to detach from if you're naturally more introverted or you've just been giving all of yourself for a long time.
Think about your personality type, as well as what type of giver you are and what you're doing for recovery time, as we talked about, and see what opportunities you can find for making changes.
By becoming more self-aware of how we are doing and the types of patterns we tend to fall into that lead to burnout, we can start to shift towards being more resilient and avoiding any crashes in the first place.
If you found this info helpful, share is with another selfless caregiver you know that could use this reminder.