Compassion Fatigue, natural disasters, events and reasons not to use dead end words to describe them, it's interesting.

  Spring is in full bloom, flowers, ducklings following their mothers, squirrels tending to their nest, and people performing spring cleaning. It is inevitable somewhere during this late spring, summer and fall we will once again experience natural events. Earthquakes, Flooding, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Wildfires, elevating our awareness levels in anticipation. This article is about donations after an event, how it is affected by "Compassion Fatigue", what the symptoms are, who suffers and how it affects donations. 

  Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Flooding, Wildfires, and Earthquakes, natural events occurring regularly all around the world. The human suffering during major events is at times mind-boggling with human compassion following immediately. Our relief donations flood relief agencies, mostly non-profits such as the Red Cross. We react quickly, it is an immediate response to these events as they unfold, people want to help in some way and that way is monetary donations. The photographs, videos, and news reports capture the fury of the storms, the destruction, and the human suffering. The contributions continue for six months when they begin to slow eventually to a snail's pace. United States citizens make the most donations in the first six weeks following the event, usually staying at that level until it is out of the national spotlight. There are exceptions, Hurricane Katrina is one, donations after the storm doubled from the second to the sixth month, starting at $2.2 billion after the first month to $3.7 billion by the end of the sixth. Almost 1/2 of all U.S. citizens gave money to non-profits after Katrina, 3/4 of us made contributions after 9/11. Donations exceeding $100 is rare, the average donation after an event is $50.00 from each family, small donations from normal everyday people, you and me.

  We can give well safely avoiding scammers and hucksters, by taking note of these two suggestions:
  *  Some legitimate charities arise after a disaster, which opens the way for con-men to exercise their invasive techniques to rob the most vulnerable. Sticking with the old established charities is a good way to be sure our donations are heading in the correct direction. They have the experience, and the infrastructure to act on relief for victims efficiently, effectively, and rapidly. These organizations generally have procedures and knowledge in place to deal with Government agencies.
  *  Do not give clothes, food, water, or other material items, send a check or use a credit card, relief organizations know where the needs are, cash donations make realizing the remedy for those needs more flexible. There is one way to give goods and services versus money if you are a caterer for instance meals for firefighters, and other emergency crews can be arraigned.
  *  Scammers will create "sound-alike" identities, using the well-known logos of establishments such as a "Red Cross", or mimic a Government organization. They sometimes present themselves as "victims", they are very believable, another caper is creating a story of how their relatives are victims and in need of help. None of your donations will make it anywhere close to a relief center let alone someone who is in actual need. (This Link leads to FEMA's page pertaining to disaster fraud)
  Companies donate, creating inspiration to other philanthropists to give as well, a few cases in point when Hurricane Harvey made landfall:
  * Verizon contributed $10 million.
  * Sandra Bullock sent $1 million to the American Red Cross
  * JJ Watt (NFL) donated $31 million through crowdfunding.
  * Ellen DeGeneres and Jimmy Fallon $1 million each
  * Charles Butt owner of HEB grocery chain gave $5 million
  * Five past Presidents started One America Appeal for Harvey and Irma.
 
  Who else gives? Elderly people are more inclined to contribute regardless of income, education or if single or married. It makes sense, I'm in that demographic, our families are on their own, we are mostly retired, and we have more time to be involved.
  Households with high incomes contributed more than lower-earning families when income is $80,000.00 per year the average contribution is $242.00, more than three times higher than those with a $40,000.000 income. That makes sense as well, a lower income household has less disposable income than their higher earning fellow citizens.
  We wrote checks with a total of $4.2 billion within the first six months following Hurricane Katrina, it is the highest total ever. We gave $2.6 billion following 9/11, $1.8 billion after the Indian Ocean Tsunami, after the Haiti earthquake of 2011 $1.5 billion in checks were written. All of the funds are donated by citizens to help strangers expecting nothing in return when we think about that it is a very noble act indeed.

 Compassion Fatigue, when multiple events occur we become numb to them over time, It is a very common condition for those personnel working directly with the survivors. First responders, medical professionals, teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters are a fraction of the people affected. Caregivers of patients with chronic illnesses are in many instances family members, the constant stress and demands tire them out, physically and mentally. (Link to a paper defining Compassion Fatigue)
  How would be able to know if we are suffering from Compassion Fatigue? I have listed below some symptoms:
1)  A feeling you are being burdened by the suffering of others, we read about caregivers cracking too often.
2)  Placing the blame for the suffering towards people, who are not involved, and it begins to appear as if there is no end in sight to the suffering. Blame the situation, not the people.
3)  Becoming a hermit, there is no longer a desire to be anywhere near people.
4)  Loss of happiness, negativity, failure to gain pleasure in life.
5)  Concentrating is increasingly difficult, we are no longer tuned into the task at hand.
6)  Cannot sleep, our minds do not "turn off".
7)  Exhaustion, mentally and physically
8)  Holding emotions in until an outburst occurs. Related to item #1.
9)  Bad dreams, nightmares become a reality more than just a dream
10) Feeling we have no way to control our destiny, hopelessness and a feeling of powerlessness set in.
11) Constant complaining, grousing about in a bad mood, waking in a bad mindset with no change for days on end.
12) We comfort ourselves by overeating.
13) Self-medication, drugs, and alcohol dominate our lives
14) We begin to not care about our appearance, we begin to look "dumpy" and sad.
15) People begin to complain about our attitude and loss of drive.
16) We deny all of this is happening.

To me this drawing depicts a caregiver suffering from Compassion
Fatigue.

  Denial is the most telltale of symptoms because it does not allow the person suffering fatigue to be self-aware, they deny they are stressed or suffering and refuse to solicit help. For those who are suffering Compassion Fatigue there are some actions we can take:
* Educate ourselves on Compassion Fatigue, with understanding comes knowledge and relief.
* Acceptance of the reality of where we are on our emotional, and career paths.
* Talk with people about feelings and other information which helps to keep us centered.
* Become more self-aware, knowing what works for you and what doesn't then embrace it.
* Don't listen to that nasty voice in our heads, we are in a difficult position, make it a habit to be our own best friend, think about the good things we do.
* Talk about our needs, be verbal and confidential, the person we talk to about it most likely needs to talk also.
* Change the environment, on purpose, make conscience efforts initiating positive change.
* Watch and listen to less of the 24-hour news cycle, enough is enough sometimes.
  Donations are affected by Compassion Fatigue as well after six months donations tail off. Compassion Fatigue is complicated if there are many natural events occurring in a short amount of time, such as this past Hurricane season when 3 major storms impacted the entire Southwestern U.S. and Puerto Rico. We have a tendency to begin to think the major part of the suffering is over, which it may well be, however, the needs go on sometimes for many years.
  There is a bit of a silver lining as well in that most natural storm events are not "disasters", or "Catastrophe's", they are events. Most of the time, (Hurricanes are an exception to a point) the events are local events, such as a Wildfire, we are able to distance ourselves by 50 miles and the effects of the event are no longer a threat. Some are "disasters", declared as such by the Federal Government, that is a word used to signal the start of relief. It is a disaster to the people in the vicinity of the storm for certain, Normally it would have to be a huge event to impact for instance Houston, its sub-burbs, and hundreds of square miles of the surrounding area such as what occurred when Hurricane Harvey made landfall. Katrina, Harvey, Irma, and Maria were all storms deserving the "disaster" moniker, as well as the Wildfires in the Western States of the same year.
  Words matter, during my working life I repaired huge machines that ran at high rates of speed, 3,000 revolutions per minute plus was common. I used the phrase "Catastrophic Failure" for a while, it is an emotional statement more than an actual prediction. My supervisor at the time told me to stop using that phrase, it was not accurate for the situation. A Catastrophic Failure is an explosion, a major reason to get up off our rear ends and do something quickly. He was correct, I stopped using that description of a machine with a critical problem, it's extremely rare for a machine to have a "Catastrophic Failure", "Imminent failure" describes it much better. Few naturally occurring events earn the title of "Disaster", Emergency Evacuation, Catastrophe, or Armageddon type of situations.

This does not qualify to be called a "disaster"

In my way of thinking those are dead-end words, meaning something has to be done right now. There are such events, but not as many as those that do not earn the descriptions listed above. Earthquakes for example, in California we have as many as several hundred a month, with none causing the slightest of damage, in fact, most of them are not even felt. when we use the "dead end" words it borders on "fear mongering", and it has no place in planning for these events, it also adds to the feeling of helplessness, and to Compassion Fatigue as well.
  Thanks for reading and sharing, tell me what you think, am I all wet or do you think I have a good point? What other words are used to invoke fear or anxiety in us? Are they used intentionally as a marketing tool? You tell me. Thanks again for reading this article.
jacquesandkate  EmergencyKitsPlus.com