Invidious comparison is defined as measuring one’s self-worth against another person’s failures or achievements. In today’s world that is hard not to do. People will often use this to make them feel better about their own lives.
But this can also make someone feel like they have not accomplished enough. Either way this is a negative way to measure your self-worth. Personally I have experienced this on several occasions. It usually occurs when I encounter someone from my childhood. I often find myself comparing my life to theirs and that causes me to stress.
It usually has to do with those people with a large amount of success. It is hard not to desire what they have or accomplished knowing that we started at the same level. I know that in my own life I have accomplished a lot and still making progress but there are those who have done far better. This can be hard at times but I need to remember the positive things in my life. Some steps that a person can take to avoid invidious comparison are to remind yourself all your positive attributes and also have positive thoughts.
Personally I have many positives in my life. I have a beautiful and supportive family.My family has given me the strength to make other positive decisions in my life, as well as, supported me in the decisions I have made so far in my life. I also have an inner strength that has made the person I am today.
I have survived many tragedies and become a stronger person because of them. All of these things provide me with the proper skills to be able to work in the industry that I currently work in. I have to employ these in my thought processes and not dwell on what I don’t have. The decisions I have made have put in the place I am and I wouldn’t change them at ever.
I know that it is easy to exhibit these traits in the human service field as well. When you see a person at their lowest it can be difficult to not want to compare yourself to them. This can make you pass judgment on them for putting themselves in bad situations. Some workers can also put themselves on a different level and thinks that they are better than the clients because they do not believe that they are actually victims, or can be helped. A person must not fall into invidious comparison because it can interfere with giving the proper assistance.A way to help a person is to take the positive attributes in your life and use those as guidelines to give a person in that situation all the things they need to also have a positive life.
The fact that I have a great support system this helps me remember that everyone needs that support family or not. Also believe that every client that you come into contact with can and will be helped instead of generalizing all of them and not put forth the effort to help them. Vicarious traumatization is another thing that can happen to many people.This is when someone you have contact with has a tragedy and even though it didn’t directly happen to you, you still internalize the tragedy.
In my current line of work I encounter a lot of tragic cases with my clients. They have experienced a lot of negative events in their life. Hearing all of these tragic stories could shake my faith in the human race. All of my clients’ negative experiences have been caused by people who were supposed to love and care for them. A major way to not internalize their experiences and lose hope that there are good people out there is to know that there are still genuinely good people out there.Also not take the negativity home to my children.
I have to know that I can’t change the past for them or myself, but I can make their future better. It can be difficult sometimes because there is so much negativity out there and I know that I am extremely fortunate to have such a positive life but the negative events do not escape me. It is all in how you handle the negativity is how the rest of your life events will unfold. These are excellent attributes to carry over into my professional life.As I continue on into my human services career and encounter many more people who have tragic pasts I am going to need to use these skills all the time.
It will be very difficult as times because the majority of clients I will serve will be victims of tragic events. In order for me to properly serve the clients I will have to hear about their lives and what has led to their current circumstance. This is will only increase the chances of suffering from vicarious traumatization. Keeping a positive view on life and remember that the only way I can help them properly is to be professional and maintain that relationship.Also it will help by keeping only positive relationships in my personal life.
Keeping those positive relationships in my life will trickle into my professional life to help me remain positive though all the experiences I will have. It is a very good strategy to have because it will help me stay in a positive mind set. In order to service people I will need to be positive. Also I will need to remember that not all people are the cause of their problems and to help them all equally. Working in the human service field is a very risky job because of the mental anguish is can cause on workers.
There are going to many instances that staff going to encounter that could cause either of these disorders. If a worker gets either of them it will be necessary for them to stop working with people until they are properly treated with counselling. It is necessary to use intrapersonal coping skills and building positive outside relationships to help work through some of the things that I will encounter. It is hard enough for the client to deal with their situations they are going to need a healthy worker to assist them deal with those situations.
