In news– Online depictions of tragic events, offensive news etc. have all contributed to an increase in compassion fatigue cases in recent years.
About compassion fatigue-
- Compassion fatigue is a condition characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion leading to a diminished ability to empathize or feel compassion for others, often described as the negative cost of caring. It is sometimes referred to as secondary traumatic stress.
- The phenomenon, known as compassion fatigue, or empathy burnout, causes us to lose our capacity to react and help those in need.
- Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers.
- The underlying psychological mechanism behind compassion fatigue is desensitization.
- Violence in digital media formats like video games and films can desensitize people’s responses to suffering or violence in real life.
- it’s a kind of emotional or attentional filtering that protects us from suffering becoming too stressful or traumatic to cope with.
- However, compassion fatigue can be reversed.
Source: The Indian Express
