The "Cost" of Caring

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Empathy is exhausting. Compassion fatigue is real. - Dan Rockwell

Pain and distress is around every turn these days. As wildland firefighters, we see the effects of climate change on the communities in which we live and serve. Many of you have protected those communities only to see them burn to the ground. We push our emotions aside in order to accomplish the mission and head to another. Some of us have loved ones gathering our belongings as fires bear down on our own home while we protect someone else's home. Each image is a slide with emotion attached. That slide carousel is getting heavy. For some, the cost of caring is a great burden.

So what do we call this heavy load? Is it depression? Maybe, but likely it is "compassion fatigue." 

This blog is about awareness of the "cost" of caring. Once we have knowledge, we can better search for answers. We hope this is a first step in taking care of yourself by seeking understanding.

Juliette Watt explains the concept of compassion fatigue well in her TEDxFargo talk "Compassion Fatigue: What is it and do you have it?"

Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge - Digging a Little Deeper

Expand you knowledge a bit more by digging a little deeper into the ways we care.

Empathy is our feeling of awareness toward other people's emotions and an attempt to understand how they feel. 

Compassion definition: Compassion is an emotional response to sympathy and creates a desire to help. (BetterUp)

Watch Brene Brown's empathy vs sympathy video.

Watch/listen to Daniel Goleman speak on cognitive vs. emotional empathy.