Compassion Fatigue

While reading Ibrahim Gassama’s article, I came across an interesting term: compassion fatigue. The article suggests that society tends to push certain catastrophes out of our mind, as a sort of self-preservation method. Intrigued, I looked further into the concept of compassion fatigue. As it turns out, the term is most commonly associated on a smaller scale with caregivers like nurses, therapists, and emergency workers who deal with victims of trauma. Even the American Bar Association advises lawyers of the symptoms of compassion fatigue, and suggests methods to treat it. These caregivers (and lawyers) struggle on a daily basis with the emotional stress of dealing with patients and clients affected by trauma and, as a result, sometimes internalize and absorb these issues as their own. In fact, other terms for compassion fatigue are “secondary victimization,” “secondary traumatic stress,” and “vicarious traumatization.”

In the article we read for today, compassion fatigue is discussed on a larger scale in that we, as a society, are compassion fatigued. During our panel discussion today, Mr. Gassama mentioned the role that the media has on our culture. The media constantly inundates us with images of horrible events going on throughout the world. The news is saturated with tragic images that are oftentimes taken out of context. Additionally, because there are so many tragic events, the news tends to skip from story to story, causing disconnect between the viewers and the victims.  Such disconnect decreases the feeling of being called to action, especially if such action is not likely to make any difference. In today’s discussion, Mr. Gassama posited that adventurism leads to false hope, which leads to despair. Is that what compassion fatigue is? The realization that, essentially, we cannot help those in need? Do we, like Mr. Gassama, question the possibility of substantial change?

Interestingly, another article notes that most people that are attracted to caregiving are already suffering from compassion fatigue. This is because they often strongly identify with those that are suffering. Generally, these types of people were raised to put others’ needs before their own, thus resulting in a lack of practice in self-care. While no cure really exists for compassion fatigue, it is always helpful to be aware of it when it happens, or at least of the possibility that it is likely to occur.

As students of conflict resolution, are we more prone to compassion fatigue than others due to the content of the material we study? We all chose this field for one reason or another. Perhaps we feel the need to make a change in the world. Perhaps we know that we are better at helping others than ourselves. Either way, we should be aware of the risk of falling victim to compassion fatigue. In order to prevent such an occurrence, we should take Mr. Gassama’s advice to embrace the struggle and not bemoan our fates.

“One more time, my friends…Let’s go out there and meet the world as it is.” – Ibrahim Gassama.