What a few weeks

I am sitting here at the computer knowing I must check myself out as far as my job is concerned.  I often wonder since I am so sensitive to how others feel, what they are going thru, that I could be Too sensitive and think I can do it all as far as the people I work with.  I am beginning to feel some burnout.  Maybe I truly do not understand the mental health field and the issues that go along with having a mental health diagnosis.  So I am stepping back.   I cannot be everything to everyone and I think I have been trying to do that.  I find the last few days I am exhausted, even irritable and not having the patience I thought I had.  I see so many I work with hurting and want to take the hurt away.  I cannot humanly do that.  In the group home I was bored, here i am challanged.  I need a happy medium.  As long as I think I can be everything to everyone I will get burnout.  I feel wired at work, trying to have everyone get along with heach other which is impossible.  Guess I want everyone to get along, to be kind to each other, to work as a team, and to have a day free of issues regarding the behavior.  I must realize that I am working with some who do not know how to do that, and maybe never will.  I see people who are manipulative, create drama, their own drama and staff is drawn in on their drama.  I personally have not liked in the recent years any kind of drama especially having dealth with that with my mother in law.  I had my share of drama growing up.  But again I am dealing with people, some at least who do not know how to be social, who do not know how to get along with others, who do not know who they are and why they act as they do Looks like I will have to spend more time alone meditating, calming my inner self and doing those things that cause me inner peace.  Mediatation is one of those things I can do to help calm me.  And then there is the past.  For all I know some stuff might be coming up.  Seems to at this time of year.  Winter has always been the worst as far as feeling a lot more anxious, unsettled, and even feeling somewhat disassociative.  Hmmmm what memories are surfacing.  To this day there are still memories I do not see in my mind like the rape of the neighbor.  I have flashbacks but no clear memories of being raped by him.  I do believe I am still holding trauma that has not been resolved or even remembered.  Could this be a sign that I might want to go back into therapy, or just that it is this time of year and it will pass.  It has always passed when spring and summer comes.  I am my most happiest, more serene, at peace with myself and my world, but fall and winter are my hard seasons to move thru.  I would rather know what happened and then it the trauma is outside of me rather than in my psyche.  But as I know too well, it does not work like that.  I must wait until it comes.  I have also thought had I not been abused would I not have the compassion, the empathy I have.  I also have thought what am I working out in my own life thru work.  What issues have I not dealt with and they come out at work.   Do I still want to be liked by the people i work with and because I feel that way, I do not set the boundaries I know I need to set with other people.  Do I not want to hurt feelings, so I do my best to be all I can be.  Well I am seeing that that is creating in me a lot of frustration and exhaustion.  I need to cut myself a break.  Maybe a vacation from work, to draw, to paint.  to have alone time to reflect.    Many questions I have but for now I must wait on the answers.  I am so glad I have a staff that is supportive and that they too have gone thru the same issues I am dealing with.  That does make it a little easier to be supported.   A lot of the jobs I had prior to this job people were meanspirited and downright nasty.  This staff is the furthest from that.  So that is a plus.   Now is the time to take care of Little Jeanette.  She has been out there doing more than she is capable of being.   She cannot save the world, I cannot save the world.  I cannot save those I work for even tho I think I can.  All I can do is be a guide to their recovery and show by example that I care about them, but I have needs of my own that need to be respected and I have boundaries as well.  Once I stopped saving those I care about and allow them to fail if need be, and learn their lessons to become self relient, then my task is completed.  So I think I will go and relax this tired body of mine.  if anyone reads this journal and has any feedback I would greatly appreciate it.  How do you still care but care about yourself as well.  Thought I had that solved, but once again, there is a lesson to be learned here.

Replies

deleted_user
deleted_user

I think you are one wise woman jeanette.
It is time to step back and take care of you and little jeanette.working and dealing with others and their needs and demands is rewarding but I feel draining to the care giver.(you)
Listen and honor what your feel and to what your body and pschye is telling you.Its all about balance,i feel.Sounds like you need some \"me\" time,to rest,recharge yourself.You work sounds very rewarding but also very demanding.Your a good and sensitive person,always there to help and support,now is the time to do that for yourself hon.
Hope you do. hugs z0
deleted_user
deleted_user

What can I say that Jannis has not already said and said well?! Take care of yourself first, my friend, and not the whole world even though your golden, caring heart wants to.
deleted_user
deleted_user

Jeanette there is one thougnt that helps me a lot when I meditate, when I pray, when I need to check myself in working with people. I don\'t know if you can relate, but sometimes I tend to get too full of myself, in that I find myself trying to be in control of many things which aren\'t mine to control. Fixers are really controllers if I think about it. I see something that I feel needs to change, to make things better for someone of coarse. For instance, I see someone in emotional pain and I want to help take that pain away to make the person feel better. My compassionate self thinks, \"oh I remember that pain or I share that pain and I want to help make it go away\", so I try to fix it, to take charge by doing something to make it change, to control the situation. Out of my therapy, due to my breakdown, I learned that I am, in doing so, in taking all that on as mine to change, am sort of trying to play God. I have to remind myself all the time that I need to have a basic underlying faith that God, in his infinate wisdom, is in charge. Not me. And that pain, as horrible as it is to experience, is a great teacher. Even when a person is in pain at the hands of another, there are great lessons to be learned in going through it and emerging on the other side a different person. So, I try to practice the Serenity prayer. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisedom to know the difference.\" The things I can not change, I am learning to give to God. The things I can, in relation to others, I am trying to learn that my job is as a teacher, to refer them to a higher power who can help them work it through. Not to own their pain or suffering, but just to be there beside them as they learn to own it themselves. To learn discernment, so that I do not mix up my own pain with their pain and always be trying to fix my pain by trying to fix theirs. To remember God allows pain we experience to knead and work in us, to make us streach, to help us learn the lessons in life he would have us learn. That said, I know it isn\'t easy because I am working on the same thing in my job, friendships, and in my life. I am leanring to stand back, not cut myself off but to be a compassionate observer before I act to intervene. To pray and ask God what he would have my role be in relation to this person. Sometimes the answer is to act, to offer an ear, to give a hug. Sometimes the answer is to do nothing because what I am seeing is simply God trying to do a work in someone\'s heart. For me to intervene would be to interfere. I think that discernment is a hard lesson for a caretaker to catch on to, at least for me. So, you have my love, my empathy, my support, my heart, and my ear any time you need it. But, remember that more importantly God is there to listen to you too. In his eyes, little Jeanette is Daddy\'s little girl. He is the loving father, always there. Love you, my friend. Deb
deleted_user
deleted_user

Deb, I was drawn to your words of being too full of myself. HMMMMMM. Yep, you are so right, put it in God\'s hands. I use to turn my son over to God when I was at my wits end when he was a teenager. I would actually say and pray, Whoa, God, this is out of my hands!!!!!!!!!I have done all I can do so now God it is in your hands, if you don\'t mind, I will stay out of it. The Serenity Prayer is an excellent prayer to get out of God\'s way when things are beyond my control. I know that I was raised to be at fault for everything and to be the door mat for my foster parents. To be all THEY wanted me to be, and never ever was I allowed to have me, my own time, my own feelings, my own wants and needs. Think I am playing out that at work without realizing it. I do feel others pain and know often that it is my pain I am feeling, not theirs, but nonetheless I feel their sadness, their frustration. That is a heavy burden I have chosen to take. No wonder I am tired and exhausted. I have been reading something called Compassion Fatigue. Just printed the test and will take it. I also have been doing a search on burnout in the mental health field. Seems this is all to common especially with people in the helping field. Because of their past, which oftentimes was abusive they work their issues out with the people they help. Well, I am not alone in this regard.
Thank you Jannis and Mtmamma for your support as well. Helping others can be a bitter/sweet thing to do. Bitter in that many people I meet and who share their story have been abused. That advocate comes out of me and wants to help them work the pain and hurt thru. But as I have seen in my own life, that is MY job to work my stuff out and also the help of a therapist and supportive friends. It is also sweet as well as bitter since I can relate on a deeper level to what they are going thru. But again I cannot be their counselor, their therapist. Don\'t have the degree to do that, nor do I have the know how to counsel others. My job is to work alongside those I serve and be a good role model. Guess the rest is up to them and only them.
By working thru the issues in their own lives will the wisdom come, will the answers be revealed. So, yes it is time to step back and let God do the work and also to give me the wisdom to do what I need to do.
deleted_user
deleted_user

Deb, I was drawn to your words of being too full of myself. HMMMMMM. Yep, you are so right, put it in God\'s hands. I use to turn my son over to God when I was at my wits end when he was a teenager. I would actually say and pray, Whoa, God, this is out of my hands!!!!!!!!!I have done all I can do so now God it is in your hands, if you don\'t mind, I will stay out of it. The Serenity Prayer is an excellent prayer to get out of God\'s way when things are beyond my control. I know that I was raised to be at fault for everything and to be the door mat for my foster parents. To be all THEY wanted me to be, and never ever was I allowed to have me, my own time, my own feelings, my own wants and needs. Think I am playing out that at work without realizing it. I do feel others pain and know often that it is my pain I am feeling, not theirs, but nonetheless I feel their sadness, their frustration. That is a heavy burden I have chosen to take. No wonder I am tired and exhausted. I have been reading something called Compassion Fatigue. Just printed the test and will take it. I also have been doing a search on burnout in the mental health field. Seems this is all to common especially with people in the helping field. Because of their past, which oftentimes was abusive they work their issues out with the people they help. Well, I am not alone in this regard.
Thank you Jannis and Mtmamma for your support as well. Helping others can be a bitter/sweet thing to do. Bitter in that many people I meet and who share their story have been abused. That advocate comes out of me and wants to help them work the pain and hurt thru. But as I have seen in my own life, that is MY job to work my stuff out and also the help of a therapist and supportive friends. It is also sweet as well as bitter since I can relate on a deeper level to what they are going thru. But again I cannot be their counselor, their therapist. Don\'t have the degree to do that, nor do I have the know how to counsel others. My job is to work alongside those I serve and be a good role model. Guess the rest is up to them and only them.
By working thru the issues in their own lives will the wisdom come, will the answers be revealed. So, yes it is time to step back and let God do the work and also to give me the wisdom to do what I need to do.
deleted_user
deleted_user

Looks like I had to post that twice to really get \"it\". lol
deleted_user
deleted_user

what smart insights, ladies!

Discernment and Intuition, Respite and Regeneration while you buff a polish on that golden heart of yours, Jeannette. You will never \"care less\" just carefully CARE fully.

Acceptance, Intention and holding yourself inner child in Love. You got it.

Keep the breath, baby.
deleted_user
deleted_user

Thank you my friends, Jannis, Mtmamma, Deb, Fishwoman for your insights, your wisdom. You are all deeply appreciated by me. My all of you find the peace you are seeking. I will be there in your journey as well to uplift and love and care for you. You\'all are bringing tears to my eyes. What a gift to be loved and cared for, what a gift.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Its like Christmas in December, Oh yeah it is December. lol