“Since the pandemic, individuals are coping with so many different forms of stress that might be activating a compassionate part of them that they might not understand, which results in them feeling drained, overwhelmed, and depleted,” says Hillary Schoninger, a licensed clinical social worker in Chicago. Eventually, your ability to feel compassionate starts to wane. This is known as compassion fatigue, which clinical psychologist Brian Wind, the chief clinical officer of JourneyPure, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, describes as “a decrease in the ability of a person to empathize due to physical and mental exhaustion.”

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