Take Care
by Ruth Ann Harnisch on 01/18/10 at 1:38 am
Day 18
There are people in Haiti immersed in experiences beyond our wildest imaginings at this very moment.
We just happen to be focused on Haiti at this pinprick of time, but people are suffering terribly at every moment of every day somewhere in this world. There are people experiencing physical pain, emotional upheaval, inexpressible losses – right now. Right now. Right now.
Kathy Dozier commented on my previous post “Earthquake in Haiti Aftershocks Felt…Here” :
“I’ve always wondered how you (reporters) can handle so much sadness and not be affected by it.”
Well, Kathy, everybody handles it differently. Some are deeply affected, some seem to accept that life is random and chaotic. Some make documentaries, volunteer where they think they can make a difference, become crusaders. Others make jokes. Some reporters take in the unfolding events with a certain “been there, done that, got the Emmy nomination” equanimity, knowing that there will always be a war, a tornado, an earthquake, a killer, a plague, something that breaks the human heart, and they’ll cover it.
Health care professionals, social workers, military people, those who work in law enforcement, criminal justice, and others for whom disaster is all in a day’s work, are exposed to the same traumatic situations, and just like reporters, they have a wide variety of reactions. Some of them may be life-threatening.
If you are exposed to suffering, or know someone who is, you may find the book Trauma Stewardship helpful. If you’re in the news business, there are more resources than ever before for helping you deal with the consequences of being exposed to the unthinkable. There’s the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma , with online help for reporters, for people experiencing trauma, for doctors and other health professionals whose patients are dealing with trauma (including reporters).
There are individual specialists, like Dorie Griggs, who speaks on journalists and trauma at conferences, at workshops, and in seminars.
I didn’t know how to take care of myself when my work brought me face to face with trauma nearly every day. It’s such a cliche, but I’m better at taking care of others blah blah bleeping blah.
One of the promises I made to myself for this year was to look for opportunities to take care of myself, to take care of myself as well as I would take care of someone I love. One way I’m taking care of myself is to release myself from absorbing the great suffering that is happening every moment of every day, to think the happiest thoughts I can think in every moment.
It’s completely out of my routine to ask, “What can I do in this moment to take better care of myself?” So that’s exactly what I’m doing.
4 Comments
Mike Rausch
Jan 18th, 2010
Ruth Ann — This is something journalists generally don’t talk about. Not even among themselves/ourselves. But, over time it does make most of us more sensitive to the reality that bad things happen and they might even happen to you or worse your loved ones.
I couldn’t count how many dead bodies and gruesome scenes I have witnessed…people killed by bullets, stabbings, going through windshields, burned alive in autos and airplanes, struck by lightning etc. For the most part I dealt with it by not dealing with it — if that makes sense. Most journalists deal with it that way, I think. I really don’t know how the average reporter feels because as I mentioned; we don’t tend to share that sort of thing.
I’ve always been surprised at how police officers freely joke around at death scenes. It’s a personal protection device that seems to have value for them. Better perhaps, than taking the tragedy of day home to their family.
The cumulative death experience also takes away the comfort that statistics provide. The ‘stats’ tell me the odds are low that I’ll be shot, stabbed, assaulted or die in plane crash today. Yet, I have personal knowledge that the statistics don’t mean much when it happens to you. Each of the dead I have witnessed got up in the morning believing they were in for a peaceful and normal day.
Ruth Ann Harnisch
Jan 18th, 2010
Mike -
I think one reason we didn’t talk about it was that it was like the Tao – we were living in it live fish live in the ocean, so we were unaware it. Yet as you so vividly prove, the culture of random tragedy permeated our lives, along with most of those with whom we regularly “swam.”
Practically everybody we interacted with every day – cops, judges, soldiers, prison guards, firefighters, E.R. personnel – all of us dealt with blood and guts and tears on a regular basis. Our average workdays comprised “The Worst Day of Several Other People’s Lives.”
And I often remind people “you’re not seeing what we couldn’t put on television.”
But we couldn’t un-see it.
(And there were some macabre jokers in the newsroom as well as the cop shop, that’s for sure.)
Mike Rausch
Jan 19th, 2010
Ruth Ann — regarding the macabre jokers in the newsroom — remember that column you wrote for the Banner about Don Henley’s ‘Dirty Laundry’? It was just one of your many brilliant columns. As I remember you concluded it by saying that all newsrooms could use a little detergent. Very clever, very funny and very true.
Dr. Lynn K. Jones
Jan 20th, 2010
Ruth Ann, I love that you have pledged to ask yourself what you can do to take care of yourself at this moment! Those of us in the helping professions aren’t very good about that. Being intentional is so important. We need you in this world–you are doing so much good. So it is in our self-interest that you take care of yourself!!
Appreciatively,
Lynn
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