Shared from dailycaring.com.
Compassion fatigue can hurt caregivers
Caregiving is an all-consuming responsibility, whether you’re doing hands-on personal care or managing care from a distance.
That can put you at risk for compassion fatigue.
Compassion fatigue can be a side effect of caring for someone in need. It causes physical and emotional exhaustion and reduces the ability to empathize.
It’s common in doctors, nurses, and other health professionals and is called secondary traumatic stress. You basically get stressed from continually helping or wanting to help others who are suffering.
If it’s not managed, compassion fatigue significantly worsens your health and well-being.
It also reduces your ability to care for your older adult. You can’t be engaged, warm, and caring because you just don’t have it in you anymore.
To protect yourself, it’s essential to learn good self-care strategies and coping techniques.
We explain how it’s different from caregiver burnout, share the symptoms to watch for, and give 8 tips for how to cope with compassion fatigue.