TAKING care of other people can be tiring. Caring for others who have experienced trauma can even be more exhausting.
Last week, Kalipay Negrense Foundation Inc. sponsored a seminar entitled “Healing Invisible Wounds: Caring for Children Who’ve Experienced Trauma” for workers of different organizations in Negros Occidental. One of the modules was about self-care.
Astrid Hocking, the resource speaker, emphasized that it is important for the carers to practice self-care. This is not about being selfish. It’s about practicing “TLC” or tending loving care to ourselves.
She said “if we don’t take care of ourselves, how will we have energy to take care of our children?” We all agreed 100 percent. Also, if we don’t take of ourselves, we may develop “compassion fatigue.”
The Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project in their website quotes Dr. Charles Figley saying, “compassion fatigue is a state experienced by those helping people or animals in distress; it is an extreme state of tension and preoccupation with the suffering of those being helped to the degree that it can create a secondary traumatic stress for the helper (carer).”
Hocking continued to share the Warning Signs of Compassion Fatigue:
- Mental and physical exhaustion
- Using alcohol, food, or other substances to combat stress and comfort yourself
- Disturbed sleep
- Feeling numb and distance from life
- Feeling less satisfied by work
- Moodiness, irritability
- Physical complaints – headaches, stomachaches
She further stressed that self-care is a necessity for everyone, not just the carers/helpers. She suggests that we can start with the basics:
- Get enough sleep
- Eat well
- Be physically active
- Use alcohol in moderation, or not at all
- Take regular breaks from stressful activities
- Laugh every day
- Let someone else take care of you
There are many other ways of self-care. It depends on what a person likes, needs or wants, and the budget. You know yourself best. Do something that rejuvenates you. Make it a habit to take care of yourself too!