Trauma exposure response is a bone-tired, soul-tired, heart-tired kind of exhaustion. Chronic feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and hyper vigilance contribute to this exhaustion. But instead of recognizing it for what it is, we sometimes attribute this to being old and wise, the cynical old-timer who views the new kid on the job as young and naive while we are the haggard old martyrs too cool to get excited by immature optimism. The problem of course with this attitude is that it is contagious.