As a person who cares about others and work in a social workers position. I worked with the Chronically Mentally ill for over 20 years. As I talked to my clients and they told me their stories, I felt compassion for them. I became a case manger when I first started working for a mental health institution.
I was involved in making sure my clients saw their doctors and monitored their medications.
At that time, all who wanted to come in everyday and wanted to be involved in a program, where they could socialize with others who suffered mental illnesses as well and would attend if their symptoms would flaring up. This helped to get more help as needed, or be around people who understood their symptoms. Even thou trauma is not a mental illness, it could lead to mental illness.
Traumatic minds often accelerate their emotions outwardly that affect the people around them. Think about the person who’s perpetually dealing with traumatic people. who at times are angary, depressed, and feeling everyone is a threat.
Ultimately, they are affected by this. Specially those who spend an average day with them, trying to heal them with different therapies, activities and methods. They always try to recoup with your stress points and help them to navigate those heavy emotions that at times, disappoints the care provider.
It directly affects the minds of teachers as well these daily consulting meeting draining their mind, makes them exhausted shattering their thoughts with their trauma statements that are really an indurate work to deal with them this type of trauma is called secondary trauma that transfers from a traumatic patient to towards consulting, councilors, life coaches or teachers and care takers of the elderly.
They are the ones who directly get exposed to traumatic patients. And they spend most of the time with them by taking care of them through all kinds of sessions and enduring their every kind of behavior that may affect their own lives.
If you live with a person who is facing trauma issues. You are the person who is directly involve in their surroundings most of the time. God forbid, they could harm you or express their anger due to these factors that make them feel devastated and stressful at the moment that you just happen to be there at the wrong time.
After completing any therapy sessions with your client. you go home and the discussions in session you had with your client, keeps coming into your mind.
Especially if you feel you could of done something different to assist them more if the discussion was suidicidal ideation. this keeps revolving around and around in your thoughts “Did this action, stop that thought of suicide?
if you did not feel that you found a particular technique to diminishing that thought. It’s going to change into depression and affect your mental health poorly and your peace of mind. As professionals we too need to take care of ourselves.
It is something we sometimes do not think for ourselves, talking to another professional when we are coming down with depression or a thought just are not able to shake. Please remember you are human after all too.
Once my friend told me, she’s an active life coach and teacher at a trauma society school. She told me how she got affected after listening to a patient story of trauma; she felt numb for a couple of hours after listening to that horrifying child assault story, and its keep regulating in her mind for many days. And she became more conservative to her kids due to that session with the victim.
This one of the experiences of a secondary trauma. And no doubt there are many more.
Today 80% of consulting professionals, teachers, life coaches all type of careers in health care are experiencing this unstable situation.
This rapidly growing numbers of hospital authorities are giving resources to these professional consultant’s, teachers and caregivers to survive with these issues. Many trainings, workshops are scheduled worldwide to receive the healings of these secondary trauma effects