You might be asking yourself, “What is compassion fatigue?” It is a physical or emotional exhaustion that causes a decline in an individual’s ability to experience compassion for others. Compassion fatigue develops over time as you start to lose your concern for others. Individuals might also become isolated, develop poor hygiene, and can have emotional outbursts. This often happens due to the overuse of your compassion. Compassion fatigue is not the same as burnout, when the individual is incapable of dealing with their environment, and is more advanced than compassion fatigue.

Those that are at high risk for compassion fatigue are individuals that work as counselors, mental health professionals, medical professionals, advocates, and of course all those working in the humans service field. Dealing with consumer issues, such as life style adjustments, addictions, discrimination, and accessibility, on a daily basis can cause an exorbitant amount of compassion. Over time, this leads to individuals becoming emotionally drained, with little left to give to others. It can also affect individuals who work in the home, and those who take care of family members.

Compassion fatigue is experienced at a personal and at a client level. On a personal level it affects relationships with family, friends, and co-workers. On a consumer level, it affects the worker’s ability to effectively assist the consumer. The worker is not performing at their best and is shortchanging the consumer.

Compassion fatigue also affects the workplace. Employees who are suffering from compassion fatigue have chronic absenteeism, inability to work as part of a team, inability to meet deadlines or complete assignments, and development of friction with co-workers. An agency will also experience high turnover from staff that experience compassion fatigue.

What can you do if you suffer from compassion fatigue? Refocus on yourself!

Take a vacation, get plenty of rest, cut out negative addictions; such as, nicotine, alcohol and caffeine. Participate in activities that cause you to experience joy. However, prevention is much easier than repairing.

To prevent compassion fatigue, maintain some balance in your life. Make sure that there is part of your life where you are taking instead of giving. Put yourself in situations where you see the positives. Don’t blame others, make major life changes, work harder and longer, self-medicate, or work through lunch. Develop a plan that puts you first. Focusing on you will allow you to perform better, and thus have a better relationship with others in your life.