Burnout and Compassion Fatigue
Burnout has been described as a state of physical, emotional an mental exhaustion marked by physical depletion and chronic fatigue, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, negative self-concept and negative attitudes towards work, life and other people. Burnout happens to those who work too long, too hard and under too much pressure. Burnout results in a loss of enthusiasm, energy, idealism, perspective and purpose on a mental, physical, emotional and spiritual level.
Who is more prone to Burn-Out?
- Someone highly task and goal oriented.
- Someone with a high need of achieving “control” of self, other and/or the environment; is intensely competitive
- A individual who tends to be overly critical but cannot stand criticism.
- A person with excessively high personal expectations and exaggerated expectations of others.
- Someone whose work and “productive” activity is over valued and provides the major source of self-esteem and pleasure (doing is the key to being worthwhile)
- A person who takes particular satisfaction in doing things neatly and orderly (i.e., a perfectionist).
- An individual with a scarcity of non-work related interests in the form of recreation and hobbies.
The Cost of Caring: Compassion Fatigue
· When there is so much caring and too little self-caring, we experience compassion fatigue.
· Compassion fatigue is experienced when those in service professions become emotionally drained because of hearing about all of the pain and trauma of their clients.
· It is the stress brought about by listening to the pain and suffering of others, it is the emotional residue of exposure to working with the suffering.
Warning signs for Burnout and Compassion Fatigue
- Exhaustion: lack of energy associated with feelings of tiredness and trouble keeping up with one’s usual activities.
- Increased impatience and irritability.
- Change of Work style: becoming more tyrannical, demanding and inflexible.
- Detachment: Putting distance between you and other people, particularly those with whom you have close relationships.
- Paranoia: feeling unappreciated to feeling mistreated and threatened.
- Depression: Reduction and/or abandonment of recreational activities.
- Cynicism and Negativism: about self, others, work and the world in general.
- Decreased capacity for pleasure and social contacts.
- Psychosomatic Complaints: headaches, lingering colds, backaches, and similar complaints are often a result of the burnout victim’s emotional stress.
Spiritual indication of Burnout:
- Dillusionment and Disappointment with God (you feel that God is powerless to help; you feel that God has abandoned you.); discontinuance of religious practices: development of spiritual apathy.
Questions for Reflection:
- Can you feel strain of the pressure building up inside you from your ministering to others? If so, when and how will you “release” the pressure?
- “Overloading the system” will inevitably lead to a serious breakdown. In what ways are you going to “lighten/balance” the load?
