PCB Certified Recovery Specialist (CRS) Practice Test

Compassion fatigue happens when repeated exposure to others' trauma wears down a helper's emotional reserves, making it hard to switch off the concerns from work. The most common manifestation is difficulty separating work life from personal life because the distress from clients can linger after shifts, spill into evenings, and blur personal boundaries. This boundary challenge disrupts sleep, relationships, and downtime, which is why it’s the best answer. The other options describe effects that don’t typically align with the core pattern of compassion fatigue—extra energy at work or an improved mood would be opposite to fatigue, and while decreased empathy can occur, it’s not as universally or fundamentally characteristic as the struggle to compartmentalize work and home life.