Topic Tuesday // Exploring Compassion Fatigue // Tues 26 Feb, 7pm AEDT

Given these signs:

What are some of the things that you notice when you are starting to feel the effects of compassion fatigue?

How can you tune in more to these signs to be able to act on them quickly? These can be either things that you have used in the past or something you might like to try.

Then we will be moving onto ways to manage the signs of CF & burnout

I think feeling drained is one of the first signs of compassion fatigue but it is nearly always there because as carers we simply don't get the breaks we need. One of the things I miss most as a carer is having weekends off (like with a regular job). I saw a great meme once where it said something like: You need to do some self care: take a bath, go for a walk etc etc and the end it said NO! TAKE OVER AND GIVE ME A BREAK SO I CAN! I totally related to it as the ONLY way I get out of this state for me is to have frequent, consecutive days off - at least 3 days - where I have no contact with my caring role at all. I made a point of having a long holiday (using respite) and found it would take me up to week 4 out of 5 before I was smilling and laughing again, finally feeling free. Hence I found a decent break was the only way to get back to being myself.

@Faith-and-Hope in relation to your question, some of the symptoms can manifest physically into psychosomatic symptoms particualrly with burnout. Sometimes when we put our own needs aside for long enough and our bodies want us to give them some "time out" it can manifest physically. Also given experiencing anxiety can be common with both CF & burnout, we can often see the symptoms of this by way of tension headaches, fatigue, etc.

I hope this helps to answer your question

@Volcanogirl, Husband and I were talking with our psychologist today about the difficulty of getting a respite break. We'd need to know our daughter was somewhere safe first. No good heading off for a break and being called back for a crisis. She has had private psych clinic stays, but even then she's needed significant support from us in the form of visits and phonecalls.

Absolutely @Volcanogirl, I agree in that what really helps is to take a break from the caring. In saying this I am aware that this is not possible for everyone and we all have different cicumstances. If there is a way to get this time away from the caring role I do encourage this if you are feeling the effects of CF & burnout.

Let's discuss some more strategies in case taking a break and stepping away from the caring role is not possible.

@Former-Member, I commented about a lot of my choices having to be put aside. One me-thing I've held on to is gardening, although you've only got to look at the weeds to see that's been slipping too. It's something I want to re-prioritise, because it does me good being outside where I can see and hear birds and other wildlife.

There are 3 things I am going to draw your attention to:

Increasing self-awareness

Increasing our ability to pick up on the signs mentioned above is really important. The way we view the caring role can change day to day and so can the levels of stress or compassion we feel. An easy way of increasing your awareness around how you are feeling is to regularly check-in with yourself and think about how you are travelling in that moment. Setting up a regular time for you to do this can be helpful. For example, you may decide what works for you is to check in with yourself in the morning and determine where you are at and help this to guide your actions through the day if stress or compassion levels are feeling quite high. Thinking about this in terms of a scale of 1-10 can help to quantify it for yourself and can also allow you to think about what you need to bring the level or stress or compassion fatigue down by one point.

Another thing that can be helpful in terms of increasing your self-awareness is knowing which of the signs you can pick up on first. For some of us, it is easier to pick up on how we are feeling in our bodies, or to check-in with our thoughts or emotions. Knowing what is the easiest for you to grasp as a flag that you are needing some attention yourself can make intervening and managing signs of CF or burnout much easier.