Vocabulary
Acute Stress
The most common form of stress. It’s immediate and arises from the now. We may be reacting to an event that just occurred or anticipation of an impending event. Some common symptoms are: muscular pain, such as tension headaches, back pain, jaw pain, or pulled muscle sensations, GI upset including, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, gas pains, sour stomach, acid reflux, or IBS, overactivation of the fight/flight/freeze nervous system (sympathetic nervous system) such as elevated heart rate, high blood pressure, shortness of breath, cold hands or feet, sweaty palms, dizziness, migraine headaches, or chest pain. Prolonged acute stress symptoms can lead to PTSD.
Moral Distress
An emotional state that arises when a healer feels that the ethically correct action to take is different from what one is tasked with doing. When policy/procedures or patient decisions prevent a healer from doing what they think is right, it can present “moral distress” that can make us feel powerless, angry, anxious, and even depressed.
Vicarious Trauma
A term coined by McCann & Pearlman (1990) to describe the profound shift in world view that occurs in healing professionals when we work with clients who have experienced trauma. Empathetic and sympathetic reactions cause the victim’s trauma to bleed over into the mind of the helper or healer. It’s defined by the disruption in spirituality or meaning and hope.
PTSD
Prolonged and symptomatic Acute Stress Disorder lasting longer than a month can be termed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is composed of three groups of symptoms: reliving, numbing, and arousal. Reliving is associated with cues that may cause flashbacks or nightmares where the trauma is re-experienced. Numbing is related to efforts to avoid the trauma with memory control and detachment. Arousal is related to hyperexpression of the fight or flight nervous system, e.g. stress, hypervigilance, irritability, insomnia, heart palpitations, and headaches.
Burnout
A term that has been used since the early 1980s to describe the physical and emotional exhaustion that workers can experience when we have low job satisfaction and feel powerless and overwhelmed at work. However, burnout does not necessarily mean that our view of the world has been damaged, or that we have lost the ability to feel compassion for others.
Compassion Fatigue
Refers to the profound emotional and physical erosion that takes place when helpers are unable to refuel and regenerate. 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’s sometimes referred to as secondary traumatic stress.