From the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project:

Caring too much can hurt. When caregivers focus on others without practicing self-care, destructive behaviors can surface. Apathy, isolation, bottled up emotions and substance abuse head a long list of symptoms associated with the secondary traumatic stress disorder now labeled: Compassion Fatigue.

The only reason I know what this means is that I saw it in a headline on Google News. The story is a big one that emerged today, about an Army psychiatrist that is suspected of having gunned down 13 people and injuring another 30. Here’s the original article:

Fort Hood Suspect May Have Suffered From ‘Compassion Fatigue,’ Experts Say

Here’s an interesting, and scary, excerpt from that article:

Dr. Robin Kerner, an attending psychologist who specializes in disaster anxiety at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City, said it’s not uncommon for individuals who work with traumatized patients to suffer the effects of “compassion fatigue.”

“This guy was counseling people coming back from war and there is something called secondary traumatization, where the therapist gets traumatized from hearing all the terrible things that have happened to the people they counsel,” Kerner told FoxNews.com.

What are the odds that upon being highly publicized “compassion fatigue” will become the new “road rage”? I’m not denying that it exists, but I hope it doesn’t become a criminal defense and an excuse for horrific actions.