JumpStart Dr. Ryan Wamser's Birthday (9/30/24)

QUOTE:  "You can do anything, but you cannot do or be everything." (Matt Weld)

MESSAGE:  Part 2 of 2 - last week we covered Empathy and Compassion.  This week we’re covering what happens when you take those too far.

BURNOUT
This weekend, my wife and I watched Blitz (2011) with Jason Statham and Paddy Considine and there is one scene where the two talk about their bouts with burnout (I pulled up the clip to add it here, but it has *cough* language).  The content of their conversation is quite dramatic (of course) and not terribly accurate in terms of recovery, but it does illustrate how too much stress in the workplace can have detrimental effects.

One of these weeks I’ll go into stress in more detail.  For today, understand that too much stress at work can lead to burnout, often showing up as emotional exhaustion, physical fatigue, cynicism, and decreased motivation.

If you think you may be facing burnout, do these three things (source):

1. Self-evaluate.  Are you actually burned out or just a bit overwhelmed? If you do think you are burned out, how burned out are you?  Can you recover yourself or do you need help?
2. See a physician.  There may be physiological symptoms that may be weakening your body and its ability to remain resilient.
3. Seek help.

COMPASSION FATIGUE (a.k.a. Secondary Traumatic Stress)
Basically, it’s when your heart is tired.  As someone in a helping profession, you interact with a lot of people who are themselves experiencing trauma.  The blowback from their trauma onto you is Secondary Trauma. When we start showing physical and psychological symptoms because of that exposure we are experiencing compassion fatigue.  

Symptoms may include intrusive memories or dreams, changes in sleep patterns, physical ailments, or maybe even anxiety or depression (source).

So what can you do?  Take care of your own needs, not what others think you need.  Explore your boundaries, find a ritual to leave work at work, and talk with other people. Remember that social problems (like STS) with social creatures (humans!) need to be solved socially/with other people.

THIS WEEK, TRY THIS:  Are you managing your trauma inputs?  If your job is in-your-face confrontational (where you have little control over what you experience), what do you allow in your home environment (where you have a lot more influence)?  Is it also confrontational?  Do you watch movies with lots of drama?  Do you listen to death metal or screamo?  Try balancing your job stress with home calm.

DAD JOKE:  This morning I saw a guy dragging a mollusk behind him on a leash.  Must be hard to walk with a pulled mussel!