Gale Nasso and Me and Compassion Fatigue

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Gale Nasso and Me and Compassion Fatigue

The following email arrived late last night into my Inbox of my Email account.  What should I do?  The Spam Filter on my Email program didn’t catch this one as a possible Spam item.

The lady or man that is writing goes by the name of Gale Nasso.

Here is the email…

“I'm writing this with tears in my eyes, my family and I came over here to Madrid, Spain for a short vacation. unfortunately, we were mugged at the park of the hotel where we stayed, all cash and credit card were stolen off us but luckily for us we still have our passports with us.

We've been to the Embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves in few hours from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills. Well I really need your financial assistance. Please, Let me know if you can help us out? Am freaked out at the moment.

Gale...”

That was sometime yesterday that it arrived and I read it sometimes last night.

“What should I do?” is the normal good hearted Canadian way of dealing with this appeal.  I asked that of myself as well.

I have about 1200 or so “friends” connected to me on my Facebook account.  I have some more connected on my LinkedIn account and on other business accounts as well.

Who is Gale Nasso?  I did a search of some of these accounts that I have and couldn’t find the person in my “Friend’s List”… nor anywhere on those programs.

But on Canada 411, the searching telephone directory I did find 4 ‘G Nasso’ living not far from where I live in Ontario. One lives around the corner from my friends ‘Karen and Phil’ in Courtice, Ontario.

Maybe I met this person at Karen and Phil’s little boy’s birthday party?

Now that you have read this far and of my quandary – what are you thinking?  Scam?  A pile of B.S.?  Yep that is what I am thinking too.

Then I started thinking – “What kind of person would try this kind of thing? How desperate are they to try to scam people of their hard earned money?  As more and more of these Scams come my way, am I getting hard hearted in giving any time to even consider what ant need a person might have?”

The person has to be someone that has no thought for others and only themselves.  Selfish is an old word that we don’t use too often now for fear of hurting someone’s feelings.

Desperate?  Maybe not desperate but rather opportunistic and without any conscience at all.

My own reaction is the most serious of the issues that I am facing… my own hard heartedness… is becoming real.  I don’t know who is real and who isn’t, who is truthful and who is a liar.  I have lost my own ‘care package’ that I was designed with. I could care less if Gale Nasso rots in the fancy hotel in Spain or not.

I didn’t use to be – I used to care for people- even ones that I had never met.  I used to be a Minister and had all kinds of people come to me for help.  That is ‘used to be’.  Not anymore – I am not paid to care or lead a group of people that do care.  I am on my own and kind have become like most people that are sitting near me in church now.

I am self-absorbed and self-centered like everyone else.  After the attacks come at me from every possible angle for my sympathy and care and response to a need… I have become a Compassionate Burnout Victim… or am suffering compassion fatigue.

Others have called it Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder as well.

In Wikipedia someone posted the following… Compassion Fatigue…

Compassion fatigue (also known as a secondary traumatic stress disorder) is a condition characterised by a gradual lessening of compassion over time. It is common among trauma victims and individuals that work directly with trauma victims. It was first diagnosed in nurses in the 1950s.  Sufferers can exhibit several symptoms including hopelessness, a decrease in experiences of pleasure, constant stress and anxiety, and a pervasive negative attitude. This can have detrimental effects on individuals, both professionally and personally, including a decrease in productivity, the inability to focus, and the development of new feelings of incompetency and self-doubt.

Journalism analysts argue that the media has caused widespread compassion fatigue in society by saturating newspapers and news shows with often decontextualized images and stories of tragedy and suffering. This has caused the public to become cynical, or become resistant to helping people who are suffering.

Oh boy… I am afraid that I have hit these levels before “, the inability to focus, and the development of new feelings of incompetency and self-doubt.”

Should I put that on my résumé?

Whether I am there now or have recovered somewhat I am not really sure – yet. But I know that I have been there.

Peterborough is an amazing place for volunteers to be involved in raising money for so many different causes. I think that 75% or our calendar weekends are filled with one cause or another. Everyone is Running, Walking, Biking, Hiking, or Swimming for a cure of some kind or other.  There are opportunities to get involved to support or pay for or supply help to or be there for the hard stories of life and people around me.

If I truly listen to all the causes and all the problems and try my best to support each one – I will die of Compassion Fatigue!  And some Donors to good causes are suffering and simply quit donating.  I did and I have.

My Compassion Motor inside smells funny. That smell comes just before the motor goes poof and stops working for good.

So when Gale Nasso lays it on me about being beat up and robbed outside a swanky hotel – I ask “Well why did you go there – dummy?”  NOT – “How can I help or when or where do I send the money?”

That is how I know I am still in trouble with what I went through.

Yep I am getting better and Yep I need a Gale Nasso once in a while to show me I have a ways to go yet.

I know now that I have much more to study about this and more reading to be done… whoa!

Murray Lincoln

www.murraylincoln.com

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References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassion_fatigue