Activism Burnout: Signs, Prevention And Remedies

[bobandtorey]

Not even 24 hours after my friend Chuck Ream told me I should take better care of myself I had a total meltdown. “Charmie you simply cannot do everything yourself,” he said, “because, you know, I’ve been doing this stuff for 45 years and I’ve seen people literally kill themselves doing this work.”

I agreed at the time, thanked him. But the next day I was a complete mess: clumsy and desperate, yelling at people, angry and anxious. I was talking out loud to myself and telling others, “I’m doing everything I can and people are still suffering!” as if I’m personally responsible for not ending the drug war.

It took a few more days to sort out what was happening. I was experiencing activism burn out.

Although I’ve been working with drug war victims for years, I’m not formally trained to help people in trauma. But in the past six months here in Michigan, police raids on patients and caregivers have escalated. Parents call me, desperate for help after their children are taken from them and increasingly, activists I work with are targeted for technical violations of the medical marijuana law.

On February 3, a Crawford County Sheriff deputy accompanied Child Protective Services and a Grayling police officer into Will Reddie’s apartment to serve an emergency warrant and remove his three-year old son from the home. Why?

Police said they thought they smelled marijuana and claimed Will was “agitated and uncooperative.” Will was shot in the chest by the county deputy, who said he produced a pocketknife and lunged at them. He was killed in front his boy, who was immediately placed in foster care.

Will’s family is desperately trying to obtain custody of the child, but CPS is refusing, threatening them. They won’t allow them to see him.

I’ve been trying to help this family. I thought it was this most recent drug war horror that was the final straw for me, but it isn’t the endless stream of tragedies that has me tearing out my hair and shouting to the skies; it’s self-neglect.

When Will We Win?

Ira Glasser, President of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), gave a presentation at the 2011 bi-annual DPA conference, answering the question, “when will we win?”

“It’s often said the fight for social justice is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. But it’s more than a marathon, it’s a marathon relay race,” he told the crowd.

“You can’t see where the track ends. You can just take the baton and run as hard as you can, and as far as you can, and as strategically as you can, and as smart as you can, for as long as you can, and then you hand the baton to the next person. And that’s how you do a movement.

Time never runs out. We just get to keep fighting and running and there’s no time clock. There is only our own suffering, and our commitment to end that suffering and we get to go on fighting.”

High stress levels and burnout are very common among activists, and are obviously unhealthy for us, our family, folks we work with and for the movement overall. Cynicism and negativity are side effects of chronic stress, and it’s not unusual for activists who’ve worked many years to privately suffer serious anguish and long-term physical, emotional and spiritual effects from their work. We are deeply dedicated people.

Jack Cole, founder and former executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) told me that he has to counsel his staff to, “take time off and not extend their work day past the required time. Of course they don’t listen. Sometimes I feel I need to get a stick to drive them out of the office in the evening. They are so dedicated.”

But highly stressed people are ineffective. They can also often create conflict, contribute to low morale and make the work look so unattractive that it discourages other folks from joining the cause, which is really bad because we need to hand over that baton to the next generation at the end of our run. We don’t want to scare them away.

The ACLU has an excellent guide to identifying, managing, preventing or rectifying activism burn out. Below is an excerpt from that article. It’s a comparative list between people who actively manage their stress, and those who remain passive, victimized, if you will.

Taking care of the one thing we have control over—ourselves—will help prevent spinning out of control, just like Chuck said. It is, I’m finding, a vital part of activism to shift our attention to stress management. It’s just like an airplane emergency; please put your own oxygen mask on first, before assisting others.

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you in the trenches.

ACTIVE STRESS MANAGER

Puts Energy into areas that can be managed

Anticipates and plans for the future

Has a reservoir of time, energy for the unexpected, unplanned and crisis events

Accurate perception of both threats and support from the environment

Takes time to evaluate alternative strategies

Adopts a strategy to reduce stress directly

Takes care of self and body.

Avoids overloading capacity by pacing and relaxing

Seeks help and support as much as possible

Manages time by focusing on priorities

PASSIVE VICTIM OF STRESS

Leaves many things to fate or chance

Does not think ahead and does not set clear priorities

Faces deadlines by cramming at the last minute

Sees environment as threatening

Lets problems accumulate

Compulsive, stereotyped responses to all threatening, stressful situations. Increases level of stress with his or her reaction

Lack of pacing, self-care or diversion

Works alone and does not call on help or outside resources

Takes on tasks that cannot be completed or are overwhelming

For more resources visit

http://action.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AS_burnoutprevention

http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=new_post&f=87

[jason j]

I'm surprized it took this long for you, I've been burned out a few times. Stay strong your diffinentlly a fighter and have helped many thanks

[bobandtorey]

I'm surprized it took this long for you, I've been burned out a few times. Stay strong your diffinentlly a fighter and have helped many thanks

 

thanks for your support

[Celliach]

I get burned out every six months or so. I have to step back and regain my composure for a week or two. I have teen-aged kids that visit me for the holidays and summer. When they're here I just act like I'm on vacation for the most part. It's really helped me. I also try to devote at least one or two days each week for doing something other than working with MMJ. When the weather is nice, I take kids out rock collecting on the weekends. It's great to get into nature for several hours and just watch kids running around and having fun while leaving all your troubles and stress behind.