Everyone has been talking about the effects of war has on soldiers when they return from war; it’s called PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Bill Moyers recently brought to light an untold topic about the affects of war: compassion fatigue.
Compassion fatigue occurs when the caregivers in the war zones experience their own trauma. The official name for compassion fatigue is “Combat and Occupational Stress Reaction or Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder.” This includes doctors, nurses, therapists, and anyone on staff.
Moyers talks about this in a war zone, but it can occur to caregivers who work day-to-day with people who experience trauma. Many caregivers describe themselves as walking around like “zombies”. They are experiencing feelings of “loneliness, despair and burnout”.
When you look at their symptoms, many of them are the same as someone experiencing PTSD. Let’s review what some of the symptoms for PTSD are:
- Disturbing memories/thoughts
- Nightmares
- Have trouble sleeping
- Feel irritable or angry
- Have trouble concentrating
- Feel hyper-vigilant or on guard for fear of danger
- Experience flashback memories
Remember that PTSD occurs when something has happened to someone directly, or witnesses something that is so overwhelming that they can’t process it. The traumatic event gets locked in their nervous system, and they get flooded with the disturbing thoughts and memories, which eventually cause dysfunction.
With Secondary PTSD, a person who is helping another person is witnessing another’s pain and is working to relieve that pain in some manner. Let’s look at the symptoms of Secondary PTSD:
- Disturbing memories, thought
- Nightmares
- Have trouble sleeping
- Feel irritable or angry
- Have trouble concentrating
- Feel hyper-vigilant or on guard for fear of danger
- Experience flashback memories
- Isolation
- Emotional Distancing
In a war zone there is high pressure to perform miracles quickly, no time for mistakes, and it can be a matter of life or death. Surgeons work with horrible wounds, amputations, and infections; therapists work with the emotional pain and sorrow of a soldier losing someone, survival guilt, overwhelming feelings of regret, fear, self blame, etc. The lists are endless.
These events are so intense that they can change the caregiver’s perception of the world.
As a caregiver, when you keeps seeing and feeling bad things happening to good people, the world may no longer feel safe to you anymore. You may start doubting what you believe in and what provides you with a sense of purpose and meaning.
In this article, Moyers worked with four people who were caregivers in the Iraq war. They worked with writing exercises to help them heal from the trauma. Stories were talked about and also written to help these people express that which is so hard to express. Moyers doesn’t know if this type of workshop helps these people heal over time. He is hoping so.
What I think is important is that these very important caregivers should be recognized for their Secondary PTSD, and be helped through EMDR therapy. Through EMDR, they would be able to process those memories and digest them in a way that they could learn from them and move on.
I have seen and experienced Secondary PTSD from being a therapist, and working with therapists who have never experienced the horror of being in a war. The emotional toll of listening to others’ pain can sometimes be too much for one person to handle. I have often recommended to therapists who work with a lot of trauma with their clients to seek out their own EMDR therapy for Secondary PTSD.
The reality of people sitting in your office and revealing the horrors of what one human being can do to another human being can be daunting, can change how you perceive the world and sometimes cause you to lose faith that there still is good in the world. Through EMDR, I have seen therapists move through the effects of Secondary PTSD and be more present, feel more positive, and still remain devoted to their profession to help others who are in pain heal.
To read the original article referenced in this blog, visit BillMoyers.com