Social Work Questions Social Work

Do social workers get anxiety or depression?

I am a 38 year old male. I was wondering do social workers get anxiety or depression?

5 Answers

Yes. There are things such as compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, or vicarious traumatization. I do my own work with a therapist at times that I have a large panel of patients. It's important to keep yourself out of your work and take care of yourself. You can only take people as far as you can go psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, and physically you can go at any given point in time.
Thank you for the question. All people can get anxiety or depression and Social Workers are not immune. Even though we teach coping skills, we can still get overwhelmed by both our personal and professional lives.
Yes of course, as we are human beings like everyone else.
Absolutely we can get anxious and or depressed.
Hello and thank you for your question. Social workers are human beings who are not exempt from experiencing life; so they absolutely could develop anxiety and/or depression. However, I am not sure if you are asking if Social Workers develop these conditions because of their profession. There could be certain work environments or situations that are more likely to be stress and anxiety producing (ie: working in high trauma situations, working in prisons or with child abuse and neglect). I believe anyone going into any discipline needs to know themselves first and understand the various dimensions of their discipline. Thus if certain aspects of their discipline like working for CYF is something too heavy for them, then there are numerous other areas within social work in which they can seek employment.
I hope this answers your questions. Warm Regards.