You may be someone who others describe as compassionate, giving, caring, and dependable. Others may routinely come to you in times of need to share their grief, stress, or trauma with someone they trust. People naturally feel safe around you, and this effect may make you an excellent friend, a gifted and intuitive healthcare professional, or a beloved parent or caretaker.
What you may not know is that frequently dealing with others’ trauma and offering your support can be incredibly taxing long-term, putting you at risk of emotional burnout, stress, and anxiety.
Compassion fatigue is a term that describes the emotional exhaustion that reduces your capacity to practice empathy. It’s normal to see psychologists, counselors, and close family and friends of people receiving residential addiction treatment or intensive outpatient treatment experience compassion fatigue.
Here are some tell-tale signs that you or someone you know is dealing with compassion fatigue, and therefore struggling to find empathy for their patient, loved one with substance use disorder (SUD), or addicted family member:
- They consistently work with or support people who have extreme or severe issues, traumas, or mental health problems. This is especially taxing when those with mental health issues tend to physically or verbally threaten the person experiencing compassion fatigue.
- They deal with suicide threats or frequently spend time with people who are depressed, suicidal, or suffer from suicidal ideation.
- They care for people with SUD in dangerous or unsupervised environments. This can include working in locations where people may overdose, get into traffic accidents while under the influence of substances, or live in violent environments.
- They provide support to individuals or families who experienced the illness or death of a child or a family member.
- They work long hours in the mental health care field or they specialize in treating mental health issues related to death, grief, bereavement, or prolonged illness.
- They treat people with SUD who are also dealing with comorbidity, or the presence of more than one mental health issue or disorder at a time.
Other indicators of compassion fatigue include mood swings, insomnia, lack of productivity, becoming more and more pessimistic over time, or becoming more easily annoyed or short with others. The irony here is that many people who experience compassion fatigue may turn to alcohol or substances as a way to cope.
The One-Two Punch of Compassion Fatigue in Recovery
Compassion fatigue creates a roadblock to sustainable empathy in two ways. The first is by generating emotional burnout. This might make the person suffering from compassion fatigue irritable, argumentative, judgemental, or generally unpleasant to be around in a recovery space. This can also be the case for non-recovery professionals or loved ones who feel exasperated or resentful toward their family member or friend with SUD.
Later, compassion fatigue can create an influx of empathy that overexposes the fatigued person to the trauma they are treating in their patient. This makes the person vulnerable to experiencing trauma vicariously, sparking anxiety, paranoia, numbness, or a decline in cognitive function.
How Waypoint Can Help You Manage Compassion Fatigue
Simply put, compassion fatigue is severe emotional stress and burnout from constantly supporting others. To combat compassion fatigue and remain strong in the fight against addiction, our programs in Cameron and North Charleston, South Carolina, offer tools for practicing self-care:
- Communicating to members of your support system the feelings that you’re experiencing, and also validating these feelings in people who are at risk of compassion fatigue
- Setting and enforcing boundaries, even if that means spending less time with a patient or loved one in recovery
- Prioritizing proper nutrition, adequate physical activity, and restful sleep
- Committing to self-care practices like meditating, engaging in creative expression, journaling, spending time in nature, and spending time with people who uplift or relax you
While these may seem like simple steps to take in your compassion fatigue management strategy, we still encourage you to contact us today if you are struggling to care for a loved one with addiction or struggling in your own addiction recovery.
