Keep your mental health in check. Info on burnout, compassion fatigue, secondhand trauma. Tips on taking care of yourself at this time.
(a thread)

Burnout is physical, mental, emotional fatigue during times of high prolonged stress. You will feel overwhelmed, drained, and unable to keep regular productivity levels. It happens to people in positions of direct client care AND it can also happen when you are advocating.

Symptoms will look a lot like symptoms of major depression.
- constant exhaustion throughout the day
- no care for self, the home, work, etc
- everyday is a bad day
- you feel underappreciated and nothing you do is worth anything
- any task you are given feels overwhelming

Burnout does not happen overnight. It also does not happen in a week. It slowly piles up and creeps on you. The more you advocate, the more you will start to be drained if you do not pause. YOU HAVE TO PAUSE, RELAX, BREATHE. More on this later.

Compassion fatigue is when you can't empathize or feel emotion toward people who are or situations of suffering after prolonged exposure. You basically become indifferent and maybe start to hate those people because you are too mentally and emotionally exhausted to care.

Symptoms:
- feeling like the suffering of others is a burden
- blaming others for their own suffering
- isolation, anhedonia (losing pleasure in things you once enjoyed) [these are also symptoms of major depression]
- inability to sleep or eat
- physical and mental fatigue

Like burnout, compassion fatigue also happens with a prolonged experience. Both of these conditions happen to people who are working directly with clients/patients (ie nurses, doctors, social workers, therapists). If you are doing a LOT of advocacy, it could happen to you too.

Secondhand trauma (vicarious trauma) does exist and it is also very dangerous to your mental and emotional health. You are at risk for it when you constantly expose yourself to terrible, disturbing, traumatic content (the news, social media, literally anywhere and everywhere).

Symptoms of secondhand trauma look a lot like regular trauma, except you were not directly impacted:
- grief and sadness brought on by the experiences
- isolation, lack of appetite, insomnia
- increased anxiety

As all of these are linked to mental health, you can also experience somatic symptoms like heart palpitations, soreness in the body, increased likelihood of illness, headaches, exhaustion.

Reminder: burnout and compassion fatigue happen over time. It could take months or years (I've done social work for 2 years + 2 years internships and I have yet to feel true compassion fatigue). It probably isn't happening to you after a week. But it could happen over time.

Prevention! Looks different for everyone. Examples on things you can do for yourself:
- meditation
- therapy
- grounding techniques
- self care (more on this)
- turning off social media/news for a bit
- limiting advocacy time (this includes posting about it)

Self care is extremely important but A LOT of people are not properly informed on what it really is.

What I like to tell my clients is that self care is taking care of your past self, your present self, and your future self. It is NOT spending your rent or bill money on clothes.

You can treat yourself, but if you are digging too deeply into your finances, bingeing on substances, or causing harm in any way to yourself, YOU ARE NOT CARING FOR YOURSELF.

COPING MECHANISMS ARE NOT (ALWAYS) SELF CARE.

I am not saying "don't drink, don't spend money, don't go on vacation." I'm a harm reductionist, so I understand coping mechanisms. We need coping mechanisms to survive.

However, if an activity is hurting you in any way, it is not true self care.

Buy something you can afford today and in a month and in a year. Drink what you want when you want. Partake in substances as need be if it helps you calm down.

Using up all your rent money to go drinking though? Is something that needs to be addressed.

In terms of therapy, it's not for everyone. I do therapy with my clients, and I have gone to therapy myself. There are MANY different kinds of therapists out there with different practices, modalities, and techniques. You have to go to one that is right for you.

WOW This got long and I don't even know what else to add uh.

Any suggestions? Questions? Comments?

I will say though that you need to be careful about unloading onto your friends and family. You also need to be careful about taking on the unloadings of other people. You have a right to yourself and responsibility over your own mental health.

However, you CANNOT and SHOULD NOT constantly listen to others' grievances while dealing with your own. It will burn you out so fast and you will experience compassion fatigue over time. I do not advocate 24/7 online because I advocate as a full-time job. I am protecting myself.

A lot of people went meme over the "I am not mentally available blah blah" thing which was kind of rude because you need to advocate for yourself in that way. Tell people "Hey, I'm sorry but I'm really tired right now." And also, be understanding when someone says this to you.

Starting to ramble but at this time, PLEASE:
- Eat regularly. Schedule your meals and set alarms so you eat properly throughout the day.
- Sleep. You need to try and sleep as much as possible when it's possible.
- Turn off the news.
- Stay connected to people you trust.

I said it already but I am a social worker who also does therapy. So the things I'm saying are based on my experience and things I learn through work trainings and from coworkers.

I don't like to talk about my personal job but it's kinda important right now.

I muted this thread but I'm still checking for replies in case I can answer any questions. Thank you all for sharing and stay safe and healthy!

Dropping some numbers:

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
1-800-662-4357

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project Hotline (as Pride Month is June)
1-866-488-7386

Alright I am letting this thread fly free so I can give my energy to another week at work. The world has always been chaos, it's just exposed more vividly. Take care of yourselves, stay healthy, stay strong.