For briefers, debriefers, interpreters, statement-takers, researchers, commissioners, investigators and a range of other TRC staff members, exposure to the trauma of others has been intense and extended over the last 18 months. The TRC is powerful. Day after day they listen to the stories as staff members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is as if they inhabit the narrow bottleneck through which all the nation's misery, grief and trauma are poured.
People experiencing vicarious traumatisation often feel overwhelmed and demoralised.
They also begin experiencing difficulties in their personal relationships and start withdrawing from friends and family. They frequently have nightmares or bad dreams in their sleep, or intrusive thoughts during waking hours. Just like trauma survivors themselves, their tolerance for the outside world diminishes. Their outlook on the world can even become as bleak and as hopeless as the horrific stories they are exposed to in their everyday work. Depressed, they sometimes feel more emotionally vulnerable and tearful than usual.