Bone-crushing weariness

This week was long and exhausting.  Covid has been long and exhausting. 

Do you feel emotionally or physical exhausted after your week at work?  Are you struggling to remain balanced and starting to feel apathy towards your clients or even yourself? 

If you say yes to these questions you are probably struggling with Covid fatigue, compassion fatigue, or heading towards burnout. Everything feels terrible and you are struggling to get through every day.  There has been an increase in veterinary cases and the decrease in veterinary team numbers.  This has caused many veterinarians to feel this bone-crushing weariness on occasion.  We just need to remember to take care of ourselves so the fatigue does not take us down.

How do we work through these feelings, carry on, and begin to feel better?

Work to educate yourself.  Take a little time to learn about yourself and your emotions.  If you feel chronically exhausted, over emotional, or irritable, you need to begin to work on yourself in order to avoid falling into burnout.  Understanding yourself and the warning signs early, will allow you to take steps towards prevention when you start to feel as if you are declining. Reach out for help from a mentor, friend, or professional.  Start to practice better self awareness and care.  Understanding is the first step towards resolution.

Practice increasing your resiliency.  You have the ability to practice and increase your resiliency. Becoming aware of your thought patterns and how they effect your feelings is a great step to editing your reactions to events. Vow to learn from your mistakes and forgive yourself.  Becoming more resilient involves owning your mistakes, but not punishing yourself for them.  Set goals, but maintain some perspective when things do not go your way.

 

Engage in hobbies and practice self care.  There is a difference between buffering away your feelings with food, alcohol, or social media and really taking care of yourself.  People who focus on proper self-care are less vulnerable to stress than those who constantly focus on the needs of others.  Proper self-care is an individual thing but in most cases it involves proper sleep, regular exercise, and boundaries.  Set boundaries to prevent long hours and constant demands. Adopting a relaxing hobby can also help relieve stress and focus your mind on something other than work.

When you start to feel as if things are just a bit too much, remember that we all have moments of exhaustion. Reach out for help, get some rest, and focus on yourself to overcome your bone-crushing weariness.

Dr. Julie Cappel

“Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment.” - Dale Carnegie

“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t.” - Thomas Edison