Mental Health: Find Support
If you’re struggling emotionally from working in an animal lab, you may have been told it’s “just compassion fatigue.” While compassion fatigue is real and deserves support, many lab workers are also asked to participate in tasks that conflict with their values. This can lead to moral distress—and when it builds over time, moral injury.​ Mislabeling moral injury as compassion fatigue can leave people unsupported and suffering. People can’t heal from something that is never named.
Healing from lab experiences takes time. In partnership with expert therapists, Justify offers practical and trauma-informed resources designed specifically for current and former lab workers to support your well-being.​​
Mental Health Resources
Not sure where to start when it comes to finding a therapist? We have tips for how to find the right fit for you.
Download Justify's Lab Reflection Journal for guided prompts to help you process your experiences in animal research.
Explore Justify's Media Literacy & Response Guide, designed to help lab workers navigate comments, questions, and criticism about your past in animal research.
Not all animal-related wounding is the same. The circumstances of the trauma, and our relationship to it, influence whether we develop PTSD, compassion fatigue, moral injury, or some combination of these conditions.
Jamie McNally, PhD, LPC
Distinguishing between common conditions
Moral Injury v. PTSD v. Compassion Fatigue
Keep in mind that you can experience more than one of these conditions at the same time.
Moral Injury
Values-violations
Moral injury can occur in response to distressing ethical dilemmas. It may happen when you take actions that violate your deeply held moral beliefs, or when you witness or participate in something that conflicts with your values. In lab work, this can look like witnessing or causing harm to animals one cares about, performing procedures that feel ethically troubling, being unable to prevent suffering because of hierarchy or protocol requirements, or feeling betrayed by an organization or someone that one trusted.​
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Core Emotion(s): Guilt, shame, anger, disgust
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Key Question(s): Who am I? How could they?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Fear-based and threat-to-life based traumas
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that develops in response to experiencing or witnessing a distressing event involving the threat of death or extreme bodily harm. In lab work, this can look like bites, physical injuries, exposure to disease, repeated exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event(s).
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Core Emotion(s): Fear, hypervigilance
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Key Question(s): Am I safe?
Compassion Fatigue
Caring for others’ suffering over time
Compassion Fatigue is the emotional and physical exhaustion that can develop after prolonged exposure to others’ suffering. It is considered a combination of burnout and secondary traumatic stress and often occurs when you repeatedly witness harm and spend long periods caring for those affected, even if you are not directly causing the harm. In lab work, this can look like exhaustion from giving to help ease others’ suffering.
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Core Emotion(s): Emotional numbness, depletion
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Key Question(s): Do I have anything left to give?
© 2025 Fortifyu, LLC, created in collaboration with Justify
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You are not alone.
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988 to connect with a crisis counselor for mental health and substance-use crises. You can also visit their website for chat options: 988lifeline.org.
Please note.
The information and resources on Justify’s website are for educational purposes only and are not mental health advice. They are not a substitute for therapy, counseling, psychological services, medical care, or any other form of mental health treatment. Using or engaging with these materials does not create a therapist-client relationship between you and Justify, the author(s), or any contributing professional. No diagnosis, treatment, or clinical intervention will be provided. If you are experiencing significant emotional distress, symptoms of a mental health condition, or are in crisis, these resources may not be appropriate for your needs. We encourage you to seek support from a licensed mental health provider.