Angry, frustrated, stressed, and mildly depressed? Pragmatist hope can help
Are you feeling angry, frustrated, stressed, and mildly depressed? I know I am. I really, really thought the worst of the pandemic would be behind us by September 2021. I never expected to see the level of animosity around vaccines, masking, social distancing, and all the other deterrents to serious illness we have seen. Talk about naïve.
So here we are, moving further into a new school year with a hodge-podge of approaches to holding classes depending on where you happen to be located. I feel like the man in the newly authenticated 1882 drawing Vincent van Gogh titled “Worn Out,” a study for his painting “Sorrowing Old Man.” It will probably remind some of you of Edvard Munch’s very famous painting “The Scream.” Maybe we all feel a bit of both: exhaustion and terror.
Compassion Fatigue versus Burnout
Compassion fatigue is settling in as well. Compassion fatigue is sometimes called burnout, but actually, it’s slightly different. The American Institute of Stress notes that compassion fatigue can happen quickly as caregivers try to absorb the trauma involved in caring for those in need of help suffering significant emotional duress. It is even sometimes referred to as vicarious traumatization, second-hand shock, or secondary stress reaction.
Burnout is something that generally develops over time, a cumulative process, produced in a stressful workplace and is not considered to be trauma-related. Burnout is generally associated with increased workload and institutional demands and includes issues with co-workers, supervisors, too much paperwork, and lack of resources.
Both conditions can lead to emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion, a reduced sense that work is meaningful, resulting in apathy, loss of hope, and even existential despair. Distinct signs of compassion fatigue include sadness, grief, avoidance, and disconnection from others. Burnout is generally signaled by anger, frustration, negativity, and cynicism. Ouch.
Both compassion fatigue and burnout can be treated but some key strategies are currently unavailable to our caretakers, whether they are medical personnel or teachers: taking time off, reducing stressful workloads, and practicing daily self-care. In general, compassion fatigue has a quicker recovery time if there is space for some of these strategies to be employed, while burnout has a much longer recovery trajectory.
My own opinion is that we are at a point where compassion fatigue and burnout are nearly indistinguishable as a result of the pandemic now well into its second year.
Pragmatist Hope
What can we do about our current emotional state? Pragmatist hope can help.
Philosopher of education Sarah Stitzlein has written on the power of pragmatist hope. This is not an overly optimistic, rose-colored glasses view of the future. This kind of hope involves agency and intentionally creating actions. Stitzlein, a Professor of Education and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, says pragmatist hope is concerned with what works: actively evaluating and adjusting action to make the future brighter, not just expecting the situation to improve.
This kind of hope focuses on concrete immediate changes that can nudge along a greater change in the right direction. Her simple example is a teacher noticing that students are falling behind because they do not have adequate internet connections from home when forced into virtual learning. They are not getting their assignments done on time or even at all.
The teacher can expect the situation will eventually improve on its own (Stitzlein calls this “simple optimism”) or that they will somehow find their own solutions whether that is getting to a hotspot, library, or working from someone else’s home (she uses Angela Duckworth’s term “grit” in praise of the who can manage this). The “pragmatist hope” response is an immediate change in action: change the homework format. In this case, paper packets of homework assignments for roughly a week at a time can be a possible solution. Assigning homework from textbooks that have been sent home is also a possibility. These are small incremental steps the teacher hopes will eventually lead to academic success.
Hope on a Tightrope
In Hope on a Tightrope (2009), Cornel West writes “real hope is grounded in a particularly messy struggle and it can be betrayed by naïve projections of a better future that ignore the necessity of doing the real work.” In this case, he is referencing the fight for civil rights in the United States. Real hope takes the complexity of the process—and the exhaustion of those working for change—into account. In a 2014 interview about this book, West says, “When you talk about hope, you have to be a long-distance runner.” Pragmatist hope applies to many different efforts to enact positive social change and can be engaged on an individual level.
We all need hope for a better future if we want to go on. In thinking about how to overcome anger, frustration, stress, and mild depression, I am trying to be a long-distance runner taking the wide horizon’s view of patience and the incremental actions of pragmatist hope to build a better, brighter future for us all. It’s all I can do right now. And that’s OK.
If you still feel as if you need help, reach out for a FREE 20-minute session with Hillary.
Tags: attitude, confidence, fear, hope, stress