Vicarious trauma; what is it and are you at risk?
Most people have never heard of vicarious trauma, but probably many of you have heard of "burn out" and maybe even "compassion fatigue".
For those of us working in the helping industries there is a risk of secondary trauma, in other words feeling burnt out having compassion fatigue and possibly even being vicariously traumatised.
In this Friday's Career Chat we will be discussing how it's caused what the symptoms are and how you can potentially inoculate yourself against it.
Studies show it is actually a silent but very real hazard for all of us working in the helping industries. @Renstar hopes to shed some light on the issues and maybe you can contribute with your own stories in an effort to get the message out there that; something can be done.
Two things you can do now
1) 'Like' this post below to get an email reminder on the day
2) Can't make the session? Leave your question below.
So years ago I attended a writers conference and I had a question for the panel ...
My question to the panel of experienced writers was, "what do you do when you have seen many traumatic incidences over many years ... how do you deal with your feelings?"
No one said anything and suddenly one of the organisers who had been sitting at the front stood straight up, turned around (to the novice fool) and said with a disgusted tone "they just act professional ... !!!!!!!"
... I sat down like a scolded child (doh) but afterwards a young writer came up to me and said she was also wondering about that too and that actually, it had been a good question ... ha vindication!
Looking back it's obvious that for many years the issue of secondary trauma was being treated in a way that suggests it showed a lack of professionalism if you experienced it.
But research now tells us that post traumatic stress disorder (a form of vicarious trauma for some people) has become common amongst professionals exposed to traumatic events including but not limited to; writers photographers and all types of reporters and news people. Regardless of their professionalism, experience or age.
Wish I could tell that surly organiser!!
Although it should be said that those with more experience may have developed the resilience necessary to be able to cope to a greater extent, but more about resilience later ...
I guess that my story serves to highlight that in fact there is absolutely no shame in experiencing secondary trauma.
Not only is there no shame, but it is actually expected that you will experience secondary trauma to some degree unless you put measures in place that build your resilience and serve to inoculate against it.
In the last post I touched briefly on what it may look like to be experiencing secondary trauma in this post I also want to look at why we experience it ...
Why you may experience it:
According to researchers when we feel empathy for a client we are triggered and our limbic response is triggered, that is to say our fight or flight response causes our bodies to emit cortisol into our systems.
When cortisol is in our system and we don't eliminate it, it builds up and over a period of time it is the chemical most likely to cause stress in your body including anxiety, depression and even heart related issues.
We know that experiencing trauma including being exposed to trauma or hearing traumatic stories may or may not trigger us ... it is only when we feel and empathy towards the event or the story or the situation that we begin to experience the rising levels of cortisol within our bodies.
So a story that you hear which has no effect on you (no empathy) will not cause a rise in cortisol and therefore will likely not cause you any trauma ...
Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, most people working in the helping industries have experienced trauma to some degree and therefore have excellent empathy which means of course they will often be triggered ... and therefore their cortisol will rise ...
But it is not your empathy that is the problem because after all that's what makes you good at your job and your ability to connect with others ...
Even if you are not on the front line and you hear your colleagues tell stories it's your connection to these colleagues which could also cause you to experience a rise in cortisol due to the empathy you feel ...
No it's not the empathy that is the issue ...
It's the rise of cortisol in your body that without proper attention builds to a toxic level causing you to experience anxiety, stress, depression, confusion, sleeplessness, irritability or anger ...
Which when taking singularly or individually may not appear to be related to your work but when put into the context of your 'helper work' (or work that exposes you to trauma) could be diagnosed as compassion fatigue, burnout or even vicarious trauma.
Do you connect with any of this information? does this resonate with you? Were you also at that writer's conference?
Next up what we can do to eliminate the stress ..
@Renstar wrote:
Why you may experience it:
According to researchers when we feel empathy for a client we are triggered and our limbic response is triggered, that is to say our fight or flight response causes our bodies to emit cortisol into our systems.
When cortisol is in our system and we don't eliminate it, it builds up and over a period of time it is the chemical most likely to cause stress in your body including anxiety, depression and even heart related issues.
We know that experiencing trauma including being exposed to trauma or hearing traumatic stories may or may not trigger us ... it is only when we feel and empathy towards the event or the story or the situation that we begin to experience the rising levels of cortisol within our bodies.
So a story that you hear which has no effect on you (no empathy) will not cause a rise in cortisol and therefore will likely not cause you any trauma ...
Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, most people working in the helping industries have experienced trauma to some degree and therefore have excellent empathy which means of course they will often be triggered ... and therefore their cortisol will rise ...
But it is not your empathy that is the problem because after all that's what makes you good at your job and your ability to connect with others ...
Even if you are not on the front line and you hear your colleagues tell stories it's your connection to these colleagues which could also cause you to experience a rise in cortisol due to the empathy you feel ...
No it's not the empathy that is the issue ...
It's the rise of cortisol in your body that without proper attention builds to a toxic level causing you to experience anxiety, stress, depression, confusion, sleeplessness, irritability or anger ...
Which when taking singularly or individually may not appear to be related to your work but when put into the context of your 'helper work' (or work that exposes you to trauma) could be diagnosed as compassion fatigue, burnout or even vicarious trauma.
Do you connect with any of this information? does this resonate with you? Were you also at that writer's conference?
Next up what we can do to eliminate the stress ..
Hi @Renstar,
A call out to people who RSVPd @JM-Addiction @Sonya76 and @utopia.
What strike me about what you mentioned above is that it vicarious trauma might be relevant for people on here on the Forums. As members, we help each other and empathetic to each other, listening to other people's experiences. It make me realise that both 'helpers' in general also need to take care of themselves too.
Anybody relate to this?
Hi and thanks @JM-Addiction for sharing that story
It's an excellent examples of transgressing boundaries
I supposed to some degree it relates back to the idea of being professional ... From my previous post
Of course part of being a professional therapist is understanding that there are boundaries and certainly boundaries are taught to us and reinforced by our supervisors and our ethical standards ...
But what about those people working in other situations ( forums writers, employment consultants, reception staff of hospitals or crisis centres ...) mainly those who have no training ... who are not even aware they are being exposed to secondary trauma, yet who are also working in a helping environment.
I hope that you will help me to help these people with suggestions for how they may build resilience and inoculate themselves against the invisible wounds created by secondary trauma 
So we have covered the reasons why you may experience secondary trauma
Let's ts look at the way in which secondary trauma reveals itself ... it varies from person to person ...
Findings from a recent study mentioned the following physical symptoms :
- Compassion fatigue may be characterised by physical fatigue, Gastro intestinal issues, feelings of exhaustion, hyper arousal, rapid pulse hypertension and increase in physical ailments
- Psychological symptoms might include anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance flashbacks, thoughts and dreams related to the clients trauma
- There are also social impacts and these have been reported; as doubting or changing one's values and beliefs, changing one's views of the world, isolation with drawing from social activities with family and friends, interpersonal disruption, unable to feel a sense of happiness or enjoyment and a reduction self-esteem and feelings of guilt and cynicism ...
The above-mentioned symptoms obviously are higher amongst people working very closely with trauma but don't be surprised if even casual or inadvertent exposure to trauma causes at least some of these symptoms.
Sadly I can think of more than one friend who works in a helping environment who has inadvertently been the victim of secondary trauma, but is probably not even aware of it ...
Please remember that the experience of secondary trauma is often invisible...
... it's like smoke in the air ... You can't help but become affected by it ... it's in the stories that you here, it's in the ambience and environment ... they can get you down and you didn't even know it was happening ...
I hope this forum is able to shed some light and maybe alert you to your own secondary trauma symptoms - you may be realising right at this moment that yes this is talking about you ...
If that is the case then please contact either your employment assistance program (EAP) or your GP or a psychologist or counsellor ... As has been said before getting back on track can be achieved and soon we'll discuss how.
Feel free to share your experiences
