Welcome to This is The Gospel, an LDS living podcast where we feature real stories from

real people who are practicing and living their faith every day.

I'm your host, Corinne Lee.

The news recently has been a lot to take in, and who are we kidding?

It's been a lot to take in for a long time now, especially in this world of instant and

constant connection.

But the current humanitarian crisis caused by the upheaval in Ukraine has been another

brick on the pile of needless suffering that has just been pummeling at my heart and

my spirit for what feels like years.

If I'm being honest some days, it's all too heavy.

Even though I'm fully committed to this belief that stories can change us, I'm really

tempted to retreat from the images of heartache that are everywhere.

There are actually a few theories that explain this kind of overwhelm in the face of big social

trauma.

I learned about them in graduate school when I was studying the effects of viewing graphic

images of war and violence, the kind of images that we're finding every day in the news

and sometimes in our social feeds.

You may have actually heard of the first theory.

It's called compassion fatigue.

It's the idea that people who are confronted over and over again with the highly emotional

and empathy demanding experiences of others can become secondarily traumatized.

Compassion fatigue is sometimes said to be influenced by our sense of self-efficacy.

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