LOYOLA LINKS

• February 7, 2012
• 11:25 am
• Rebecca Lowery
• one comment

Prolonging the Inevitable

This week I wanted to share some of my experience with “the tough stuff” in social work. I won’t be giving advice or sharing any kind of resource. But I hope that what I share will resonate with you, the readers, and that you’ll be able to relate and take something to help you in your practice or with life in general.

Every Friday, my supervisor and I close our office door and set aside at least an hour to review the events of the week so that I can process what’s going on with various clients, ask questions, and discuss different issues I may have questions about. A topic that came up during this past week’s discussion was the idea of burn out.

My concern about this began not too long after I decided to major in social work, and I’ve always thought about how I can avoid it. But then I also wonder if it’s avoidable at all. So far, I feel that I’ve done a pretty good job of coping with the stresses of being a social worker; I don’t go home and worry about what Johnny is doing or how Betty’s court date went. I just don’t. I think that’s due to the fact that I know certain things are out of my control. But this lack of worry gives me an unbelievable guilt trip . It’s like I feel bad for NOT worrying…I wonder if I’m not as caring as some of my peer social workers are because I’m not upset when I leave work every day. And THEN I wonder how long I can keep this up…I have this idea in my head that the other shoe has to drop at some point, that eventually I’ll lose the ability to push through all the tough stuff to get to the good. Throughout my short lived social work career I’ve occasionally encountered those stereotypically jaded people that smile patronizingly at my “young naivety”. And it kind of frustrates me. It’s like they’re laughing in my face saying, “Yeah, you’re cute, but just wait until you’ve been doing this for 20 years and hate everyone.” I don’t know about you, but that scares me for a couple of reasons. For starters, I don’t ever want to lose my sense of hope. Naive as I may be, I enjoy having a positive outlook on life even if it is associated with being young and inexperienced because it gives me confidence that tomorrow will be just a little bit brighter than today. I also get worried about the pessimistic viewpoints that always seem to creep up on us. I’m all for being a realist, but where do we draw the line? Part of our obligation as social workers is to instill hope in our clients. If we’ve lost hope for ourselves and for humanity, how do we expect to instill hope in those we are serving?

I wrote all this not to confuse or discourage you. I wrote this to let you know that you’re not alone. We all feel this way at one point or another, and that’s what I discovered this past week. I also realized that I need to RELAX! Sometimes as social workers I think we try to be superheroes, and we forget that we’re human. We all have our bad days, and we all make mistakes. Sometimes we’re going to feel down, and sometimes we’ll feel like we can take on the world. The trick is to find a balance. 

In honor of Black History Month, I would like to end with this quote:

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.