This one is for all those folks who are in what is called "the helping professions." Although I am sure I will leave someone out, and my apologies in advance, this list includes teachers, doctors, nurses, guidance counselors, therapists, psychologists speech pathologists, and emergency personnel.

This category simply includes any profession in which caring for others is part of the job.

Whiloe all jobss can be stressful at times, there is a special kind of stress that affects those in the helping professions. Simply stated, there is an emotional cost to caring. There is a certain weariness that all of us struggle with from time to time.

The feeling I'm talking about was once called burnout. In recent years, Charles Figley, director of the Psychosocial Stress Research and Development Program at Florida State University, has coined the term "compassion fatigue."

This concept seems to capture more clearly what people in the helping professions can sometimes experience.

According to Figley, "Compassion stress is the discomfort and preoccupation with clients or customers who are stricken by suffering or misfortune. And `compassion fatigue,' a form of burnout, is the inability to function effectively as a result of being overwhelmed by compassion stress."

Or as one colleague aptly put it, "I've got the fatigue; I just don't have the compassion right now."

Signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue