Compassion Fatigue, Burnout And Self-Care
By: Meagon Nolasco
Tags: Mental Illness, Mental Health Awareness, Professional Development, Mental Health, Self Improvement

Self-Care for the Win

I have begun to see a dissipation of my compassion fatigue symptoms. I am a month into my awareness of falling prey to this conundrum and would like to share with you my big secret.

SELF-CARE!

We talk about self-care so often in the mental health field you would think it comes as second nature for all of us who work in it. That is an incorrect assumption.

In a 1999 study of 151 community mental health workers in Northern California, 54% showed signs of emotional exhaustion and 38% showed signs of burnout. Half of the participants of this study were on a path towards burnout and the other 38% who felt burnout could be headed for compassion fatigue.

We all know the run of the mill self-care tactics such as taking a mental health day or sipping a nice glass of wine in a beautiful, bubbling bath. What about self-care that proves to take more effort or is more difficult? Here are three self-care techniques that may not be easy but boy were they beneficial for me.

Setting Boundaries

Do you ever struggle with saying no? If a friend or a family member needs your help, do you throw all your responsibilities and worries to the side to help these individuals?

If you answered yes, as I did, then boundary-setting could be helpful. Boundary setting can look like many things: turning your phone off when home for the night and not turning it back on until the next morning, telling a friend or family member no without another obligation as the reasoning and not checking the work email after hours.

Boundary setting has always (I REPEAT ALWAYS) felt a bit awkward for me. This is my experience and yours may differ. These boundaries are necessary though for us to be able to balance our helping of others with our own mental and physical health.

2. Crying

I have shed many tears in the past couple of months. Tears for the loss of a loved one. Tears for the loss of a lifestyle and career I thought I loved. Hell, tears were shed watching a Hallmark Christmas commercial. The point is, my emotions have been sitting right on the tip of my eyelids for months and they pour over often.

And I am ashamed of not one tear shed.

Crying is a release of emotion. Crying for an extended period of time releases oxytocin and endorphins into your body. These feel-good chemicals can help alleviate emotional and physical pain.

When tears begin falling from our eyes, they are not signs of weakness. Tears are signs of our souls needing a release. When you feel a good cry coming on try not to fight it. Take the time to allow your body to release and heal in its own way.

3. Admitting Defeat

We are taught from an early age that quitting equates to defeat. Society tends to view quitting as a negative experience and we view our life experiences through these rose-colored glasses. This toxic way of thinking can lead to compassion fatigue, burnout and many other stress-related illnesses.

What if we reframe defeat? What if instead of admitting defeat we were admitting the need for a break?

We all are only human. We must rest. We must nourish our bodies. We must care for our mind as we care for our physical self. These are all facts that need no citation.

Normalize saying no; When that new project at work needs more hands but you have three on your desk. When your best friend calls because a band is in town but you have already planned a self-care night. When your parents call and need to talk for a couple of hours, I mean minutes, about something you also talked about yesterday for those same hours, I mean minutes.

IT IS NORMAL TO SAY NO. Read this a couple of times out loud before moving on, you will thank me later.