Cumulative Grief and Repeated Trauma Exposure

Some grief isn't one loss — it's the accumulation of hundreds: every patient, every call, every story you've absorbed over years of caring work. This cumulative grief is quieter than a single bereavement, but it is just as real, showing up as exhaustion, numbness, irritability, or the sense that you have nothing left to give. It is not a personal failing; it is what happens to humans who carry too much of others' pain. There is a name for it, and there is help.