Every morning you wake up and succumb to the urge to scroll through your social media accounts. Gone are the days when your feed was filled with the latest updates from your online friends, catty DMs from old high school classmates regaling you with updates about that teacher you all disliked. Social media feeds have now been curated to show you posts based on your interests interspersed with world news. The majority of your for-you page is every bad thing happening, everywhere, all at once. It can get exhausting to remain aware of all the atrocities occurring in the world. The burnout resulting from this is known as crisis fatigue.
There’s a common post that millennials and Gen X share, how they keep living through historical events. With how information is disseminated instantly, it can be hard to be unaware or try and limit how much you know each day. Social media is also designed to encourage you to respond to rage bait or doom scroll. It may be impossible to tune out, especially if you care about what other people are going through. However, this can lead to stress. Doomscrolling: What It Is And How To Manage It
It can feel like you can’t escape every update about terror attacks, drought, mass shootings, genocide, femicide, war, crime, pandemics, financial crises, or natural disasters. Going through these things and being affected by them indirectly leads to chronic stress. Direct victims and survivors of these crises experience profound loss and grief and require endless support. When you’re indirectly affected, you can take steps to ensure that you don’t end up desensitised or apathetic.
Signs of crisis fatigue
It may be difficult to identify if you’re experiencing stress from personal events or showing symptoms of crisis fatigue. The symptoms are similar and include heart palpitations, anxiety, shallow breathing, muscle tension, sweating, and depression. When you experience these symptoms as you are scrolling through social media or watching the news, you could be experiencing crisis fatigue.
You can also experience exhaustion, insomnia, hypersomnia, loss or increase of appetite, numbness, anxiety, lack of empathy, body pain, using drugs more frequently, lack of motivation, withdrawal, struggle with work, and difficulty focusing. 6 Common Causes Of Chronic Fatigue
Who gets crisis fatigue?
Frontline workers are the ones who are most likely to get crisis fatigue. During the pandemic, healthcare workers experienced compassion fatigue the most. Those who have experienced trauma are also more likely to show symptoms. People with pre-existing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression are more likely to get crisis fatigue. Others include people who are homeless, unemployed, with disabilities, financial uncertainty, and with loved ones working in the frontlines. Compassion Fatigue: Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
Crisis fatigue should be addressed because it can lead to mental health complications, post-traumatic stress, and substance abuse.
Causes
You’re more likely to experience crisis fatigue if you are constantly exposed to the trigger. Feeling like you have no control over your future can also cause burnout. For instance, people who don’t know where their next meal will come from can be burnt out by all the news stories about starvation globally. Having no support system leads to fatigue. When you’re dealing with a lot of personal stress from systemic issues or being in a personal crisis, being constantly exposed to world issues can lead to fatigue.
The collective burden of personal stress and crisis fatigue is known as allostatic load. Because of the constant exposure to stressors, your body releases cortisol—the stress hormone—and fight/flight hormones. Allostatic load creates wear and tear in the body, affecting inflammatory response, blood pressure, metabolism, and immunity. Health: How Stress Changes Or Affects Your Brain And Body
How to deal with it
1. Take a break
Take breaks from social media and the news cycle. You probably want to be aware of every single event. But when your health deteriorates, you will be less likely to help. Instead, protect your mental and physical health by taking scheduled breaks from scrolling. If you are a frontline worker, try to take time off where possible. If you can’t switch off and take a walk or read a book during your downtime. Make it a rule not to think about work at the end of the workday. Technology And Social Media – Time To Unplug
2. Avoid being overwhelmed
Instead of doomscrolling and trying to be aware of every single bad thing that takes place, try to stay up to date with ways to help instead. Rather than consuming all the misery, keep up to date with how you can contribute and maybe the positives coming from that. Set limits on how much time you spend watching the news or following an account that does periodic updates rather than getting information from every account.
Signs That You Need To Take A Social Media Hiatus
3. Practice self-care
Self-care is necessary for maintaining mental health, even when you aren’t in crisis. At the very least, try to get enough sleep, hydrate, eat healthy, and move your body for at least 25 minutes five days a week. Simple Ways Of Practicing Self-Care On A Daily Basis
4. Get a routine
Getting a routine in the morning, evening, or during work can help you maintain a sense of control. It also makes it easier to spare time to take social media breaks or sleep. How To Create The Perfect Morning Routine And Stop Struggling To Get In The Groove
5. Find support
There are plenty of organisations that work together to assist people in need. Sharing the load of care helps them shoulder all the labour that comes with helping. If you try to go it alone, you can end up experiencing crisis fatigue. Joining groups where you can contribute to the best of your ability and get mental health support is a great way to keep helping and avoid long-term stress. Talking to others who have gone through the same can also be helpful. If things get overwhelming, you should seek professional help such as a therapist. Maximizing Your Time: The Benefits Of Online Therapy For Busy Individuals
Mental Health: Pros And Cons Of Talk Therapy
6. Help elsewhere
There are situations where you can’t help beyond posting on social media. The feelings of helplessness that come with that can make it easy to develop apathy or inaction. Instead of succumbing to action paralysis, try to help elsewhere. Taking action with other causes that still matter helps you avoid falling into a depressive state. How To Pick The Right Charity To Support
Check out
Work: How To Cope When You Are Overwhelmed
How To Protect Your Children From Traumatic News And Content
Mental Health: Who Takes Care Of The Caregivers Of Chronically Ill Patients?
