Feeling unusually low, exhausted, irritable and generally flat? Unable to enjoy yourself as you used to? Drinking just a little too much? Fighting with your friends and family? Burning the dinner and kicking the cat!? Then you could be experiencing the early signs of secondary traumatic stress. Otherwise know as work-related stress, common syndromes of which are burnout and compassion fatigue.

What is secondary traumatic stress?

Secondary traumatic stress is the natural consequence of hearing about and experiencing traumatic events or stories from others and of being in working environments with ever increasing organisational demands.

Working with vulnerable individuals, experiencing their experiences, either through emotional and/or physical contact, can lead us into those very same feelings and moods. Add to this the demands of long working hours, increase in paper work and lack of peer support; the likelihood of developing STS becomes almost unavoidable without professional support.

Who is at risk?

In truth, anyone dealing with people, anyone involved in human relationships and anyone working long hours with a lack of peer support, insufficient training and limited psychological attention to mental wellbeing. These factors create a perfect breading ground for the symptoms of secondary traumatic stress.

Burnout and compassion fatigue have a devastating impact on both our working relationships and our personal lives. These cumulative changes have not just an impact on the employee but on the organisation and the service provided to service users.

What are the signs?

Burnout is cumulative and creeps up on us over a period of time. Compassion fatigue is much more acute. We can be ok one minute and flying off the handle the next. Common symptoms are:

• Apathy
• Anger
• Low mood
• Low morale
• Lack of motivation
• Breakdown in communication
• Lowered immune symptom
• Reduced general functioning
• Increase in self-destructive behaviours
• Problems in relationships with others