SARASOTA-MANATEE (WSNN) – Feeling overburdened and numb in response to the pain and suffering of others? It’s what mental health professionals call compassion fatigue.
“COVID; it panicked me to a point, where I started tripling the people that I was taking care of,” Mark Wandall Foundation Founder, Melissa Wandall said.
Wandall is a Bradenton Mother, Activist, ambassador, non-profit founder, and a helping hand of many on the Suncoast. Since March she’s been working that much more to help others, but this month, it all came crashing down on her.
“You don’t think about eating, you don’t think about drinking correctly,” Wandall said.
This leads to compassion fatigue.
“You become exhausted, tired, and become a little callous so that you don’t feel anymore, and become numb to the pain that you’re seeing on a daily basis,” Clinical psychologist, Dr. Eddy Regnier, PhD said
Dr. Regnier says it’s a feeling many service providers experience. One Wandall is all too familiar with.
“You have to be compassionate with a detached heart,” Wandall said.
While it may seem harsh, Wandall says don’t let yourself be burdened by everyone you want to help.
“I’m going to walk beside you; I’m not going to take it in,” Wandall said. “If I start living other people’s lives that I’m helping, then I’m going to go down real fast and I’m not going to be there for anybody, especially my daughter.”
Dr. Regnier says the best thing to do is to have self-compassion and take care of yourself.
“Sometimes it’s ok to say to people, ‘I’m going to take the next couple of hours for myself,'” Dr. Regnier said. “Because I need to preserve my ability to take care of you.”
He says you can show up in small ways and even enlist the help of others.
“We’re one of the shoulders we hope our non-profits can lean on any time, but especially in a time of dire of need,” The Gulf Coast Community Foundation COO Veronica Thames, said.
Thames says they feel more empowered and driven to fulfill their mission to help non-profits fulfill theirs.
Ultimately, take time for yourself. Dr. Reigner says you can do take a lunch break, go for a walk, watch a funny movie, or even call a friend. Help yourself, so you can help others.