Summary

In “I’m So Tired,” Gabbert describes a letter a woman wrote “to Roxane Gay’s advice column in The New York Times” (207). The woman asked “for help overcoming a sense of political apathy” (207). Gabbert “can relate” to this experience (207). The more news she consumes, the more “incapacitated” she feels (208). She reads articles about horrific events, yet immediately moves on. This numbness has bled into her personal life, too.

The aforementioned experience was originally coined “compassion fatigue” by Carla Joinson in 1992 (211). Joinson first noticed the phenomenon while “studying emergency room nurses” (212). Spending so much time devoting their emotional energy to patients, caused nurses' “lingering feelings of helplessness and anger” (212). Gabbert has had this experience in the context of her marriage. “John has a chronic illness,” which has caused Gabbert to play the role of caretaker (213). Caring for John has complicated...