Compassion fatigue -- how to protect yourself

This is great advice in this piece and something I practice all the time. Ok, sometimes not often enough. The post I did about God forsaking me was the result of not doing it often enough.

Not much has changed since that post, but the wondrous thing is that a lot of you emailed me letting me know you care, sharing your own stories, your own faith and it really helped a great deal.

One of the causes behind this blog is to show how we are all really connected. Some hurt but others help. Some are in need, but others give. The problem is when we forget that the really important thing is what binds us together. I don't pick and choose who I help because none of my heroes did. I don't want to get so swallowed up in the political division in this country that everything else vanishes. That hating anyone solves nothing, ignoring the truth and believing in lies makes bad things worse, plus it leaves behind a lot of people the same energy could be used to help. Focusing on what we can do makes a lot of people a lot better off.

It was also about sharing my own joys, pains, frustrations and struggles. That was also the reason I wrote the book. No, no nobility here. I had seen a therapist and was encouraged to write it as a way of healing and helping. Healing me, getting me over the anger I was still unable to move past along with the pain, was the primary goal. If you are a caregiver, it may help you especially if you are dealing with PTSD. Click the link on the side bar back to my website and you can read it in Adobe.

This article says that talking helps, but it's not just about talking, it's about sharing the fact that we are all human and none of us can overcome everything alone no matter how much faith we have.

Compassion fatigue -- how to protect yourself
CNN

Story Highlights
Caretakers can struggle with demands on time, energy and patience
But they can also become overwhelmed if they're too empathetic
That can flood them with other person's pain, leaving them exhausted, angry
Meditate, keep a journal, keep in touch with outside and be unafraid to ask for help
By Tim Jarvis


(OPRAH.com) -- The next time someone dreams up a new superhero, she should be wielding a bedpan. And Kleenex. And playing cards and travel Scrabble.


Caregivers try to be empathetic but they run the risk of taking on the other's stress and depression.

As any of the more than 50 million Americans caring for an elderly, disabled, or chronically ill loved one knows, the task requires superhuman strength and patience -- and loads of compassion.

Given the constant demands on your time and energy -- for months or years on end -- as well as the stress and frustration involved, having large reserves of empathy is crucial.

Yet as strange as it sounds, all that empathy can backfire, flooding you with the other person's pain, and leaving you exhausted, angry, even unable to care anymore. No one likes to talk about these feelings; they seem selfish, shameful, indecent. They take a toll, however -- on both you and the patient. And they're a growing concern among physicians, who have a name for what's happening: compassion fatigue. Oprah.com: Caring for parents, keeping your sanity

"About 6 to 8 percent of physicians and nurses suffer compassion fatigue," says Michael Kearney, M.D., the lead author of a report on the subject published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Unlike burnout, which is caused by everyday work stresses (dealing with insurance companies, making treatment choices), compassion fatigue results from taking on the emotional burden of a patient's agony.

In a way, it's similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, except that the stress is a reaction to the trauma of another. As with PTSD, symptoms include irritability, disturbed sleep, outbursts of anger, intrusive thoughts, and a desire to avoid anything having to do with the patient's struggle.
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Compassion fatigue how to protect yourself