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Workaholism is regarded by psychologists as a form of addiction, akin to alcoholism or drug addiction. Such people cannot fully enjoy life and find solace only in work. Getting rid of it is quite difficult, because its causes go deep into childhood.
Addiction negatively affects all areas of life
Workaholism not only exhausts a person mentally, but also negatively affects his health. Constant exhausting work also spoils relationships with relatives and friends, because a person simply does not have time and energy for them.
Signs of workaholism
The desire to work plays an important role in the development of personality, but sometimes it carries a person too much. Psychologists consider this a disease and offer many ways to treat it. Ignoring this problem leads to mental and physical health problems.
It's not that difficult to spot a workaholic. This is a secretive person and constantly busy with some kind of business. They find it difficult to tolerate weekends or lack of activity during holidays. A workaholic does not need vacation or sick leave during illness.
Can't stay busy even on weekends
When communicating, they always switch the topic to discussing their profession and work achievements. Their attitude towards family is rather ambiguous. Addicts justify their employment by saying that they work to provide for their families. In fact, they simply avoid participating in solving everyday issues and caring for children. All responsibility falls on the shoulders of their partner.
There is no need to confuse a dependent person and someone who finds themselves in a difficult life situation. Forced hard work is somewhat similar in characteristics to workaholism, but such a person does not strive to live in such a rhythm all the time and will gladly rest if such an opportunity presents itself.
Why is workaholism dangerous to life?
Obsession with work can be classified as a type of addiction, such as alcoholism and shopaholism. Their similarity is in uncontrollable attraction up to complete absorption by the object of dependence. According to experts, the danger of workaholism lies in the fact that for a person it is a priority in a narrow sphere of life. At the same time, everything else - relationships, health, self-development - will certainly suffer. The result is an unstable, inharmonious and unfulfilled existence.
Also, fanatical dedication to work often leads to a decrease in efficiency, attentiveness, creativity and efficiency. The psyche and body “get tired” of monotony. Therefore, it is so important to change the position of the body, the train of thought, the images and views before the eyes.
This makes it possible to recover from typical activities, even if they are enjoyable. In addition, self-denial in the name of work poses a real danger to life and health (the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases).
Causes of workaholism
The main reason for workaholism is avoidance from reality.
This may be a habit formed since childhood. The child avoids the unfavorable environment at home by immersing himself in some activity. Also, overly strict parents can have a negative impact on an unformed psyche. Horror stories that poor studies guarantee the absence of a normal profession can make a person a workaholic. Sometimes children try to earn the favor of adults in this way.
One of the reasons is to try to prove that he can do something.
The causes of addiction may be the following:
- Euphoria from the reward for the work done. Pride in oneself pushes a person to work even harder, but often does not pay off.
- Low self-esteem and attempts to show your importance to others. People who have failed in relationships or creativity can focus their attention on what they are really good at.
- An example of another person, often a parent or mentor.
- A lack of communication skills provokes a withdrawal from society into a little world where you can do everything yourself and not have contact with people.
Sometimes the cause is psychological trauma. People who find themselves on the verge of poverty for some reason may strive to work more so as not to experience a feeling of hopelessness again.
What is workaholism and its causes?
Workaholism is a person’s pathological dependence on his work activity, when he can only get true joy and pleasure by completing assignments and assignments. A person only sees this as his calling, an opportunity to self-realize and gain approval from others. Over time, the workaholic becomes not satisfied with his work and he takes on any opportunities just to stay in the office or takes work home.
Such psychological dependence is extremely dangerous, since a person loses interest in everything that does not relate to professional activities. First of all, family, children and communication with others suffer. A person is not interested in anything that does not relate to work; all conversations come down only to this topic. Addiction causes a person’s physical health and psycho-emotional state to deteriorate. Workaholism often leads to depression.
There can be many reasons for workaholism; let’s look at the main and most popular ones:
- Lack of personal life, family, friends and hobbies. As a rule, workaholics seek solace in work; they strive to throw themselves into it headlong and achieve success in the professional field, since this was not achieved in the personal one. Over time, this develops into a pathological addiction; workaholics are left without family, friends, and even in the team, despite all their diligence, they do not deserve authority and respect.
- Growing up in a dysfunctional family, where there was a great shortage of money, one of the parents or both suffered from alcoholism. Such children, having matured, strive to get everything that they did not receive in childhood, they want to provide their relatives with everything they need, without noticing that in the pursuit of material well-being they are losing themselves and their family.
- The desire to earn respect and recognition from others, to please parents who have high hopes with their successes.
- Avoiding problems. By throwing yourself into your work, you can successfully ignore everything else.
Types of workaholism
Despite the fact that the concept of workaholism implies dependence on work, it has several varieties. People rarely adequately assess their danger.
There are such types of workaholism:
- volunteer – activists who are ready to carry out tasks for free or for pennies;
- creative – a manic passion for creating masterpieces, creative people often suffer from it;
- sports – a constant thirst to improve your body;
- domestic - complete dedication and self-sacrifice for the sake of family, home and children.
Workaholics are ideal employees who are often not appreciated. The bosses like their level, but they do not seek to reward the employee for this.
Negative consequences
Constant employment has a negative impact on health
Workaholism is a serious problem, because it negatively affects not only a person’s emotional and psychological state, but also undermines his health. Constant hard work causes prolonged stress, depression, and many chronic diseases.
Lack of sleep and lack of rest provoke disorders of the central nervous system, as well as increased blood pressure. If the profession provides a sedentary lifestyle, then problems with the musculoskeletal system can be added to everything else. Constantly watching the computer significantly worsens vision.
The digestive system is also affected. A constant lack of time for adequate nutrition provokes the development of gastritis, pancreatitis and ulcers.
How do you know if you are a workaholic?
Excess
A person works always and everywhere. He becomes a work fanatic. He can work even if overtime is not paid.
Infinity and limitlessness
A person cannot imagine his life without work. Having completed a certain project, the workaholic’s mood deteriorates, and he immediately begins to make new plans.
Narrow space of existence
Other areas of life suffer greatly. If a workaholic is good at work, then he absolutely does not know how to relax or spend his leisure time in any interesting way. He can’t imagine how he can relax without doing anything.
Signs of addiction
A workaholic has an uncontrollable attraction to work: outside of work he can be irritable, gloomy, not talkative, and aggressive. When meeting with the “object of dependence” - work, his mood immediately improves, strength and meaning of life appear.
Hyperresponsibility and perfectionism
Workaholics are very demanding and self-critical, and they demand the same from others. They sincerely believe that no one else can do it better, so they take on too much of everything.
Anxiety
Such people are usually very unstable and nervous people. Since work is the meaning of everything to them, they especially suffer from the fear of failure or dismissal. Anxiety can spread to other areas of life. Workaholics are often very weak and insecure people in everything that does not relate to their career. They cope poorly with life's difficulties, failures, and losses.
Denial of the problem
A workaholic does not see a problem with being overly involved in work. He often justifies his fanaticism by the need to increase his well-being or his own indispensability in the work process.
Deterioration of health
Constant excessive involvement in work can lead to both emotional and professional burnout and physical weakening of the body. As a rule, the gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular systems are affected, sleep and appetite are disturbed, and headaches appear.
How to deal with workaholism
Workaholism needs to be treated, but not many people know how to deal with it. The most rational solution would be to contact a psychologist or psychotherapist for help. The first step to recovery is recognizing your addiction.
Rationalization of life
In order to overcome the main symptoms of workaholism, you need to rationalize your day. A lot of time is usually spent on absolutely useless things that create the appearance of constant activity.
If documents are kept in paper form, it takes a lot of time to write, sort and store them. It is illogical to do this when there are plenty of opportunities to store information electronically. People with addiction need to distribute their working time as rationally as possible and set aside a couple of minutes for rest.
We need to reconsider our opinion about “idle time”. A psychotherapist will help with this. With the help of trainings and psychoanalysis sessions, you can learn to correctly prioritize and rationalize your life. There is no need to spend all your time working if you can free up time for yourself, hobbies, family, etc.
Psychotherapy
Sessions with a psychotherapist can also be aimed at finding the causes of addiction and ways to get rid of it. Most often, the problem lies precisely in childhood, so it will not be possible to solve it quickly and simply.
Hard workers rarely turn to psychotherapists for help, because they consider long, measured conversations a waste of time. In order to help you decide to take such an important step, you will need the support of loved ones.
Who are workaholics?
Fishing, relaxing watching a movie, banal relaxation by the lake - all this is not about them. Workaholics cannot attend school matinees or kindergarten celebrations for their children. Simply, for them, entertainment and relaxation are an empty, very wasteful waste of time. Weekends and holidays, moments of relaxation are harmful and ruin life. At least that's what they think.
It should be noted right away that the category of workaholics is not those people whom anyone forces to work. There is voluntary slavery, forcing many people to work not 8, 10, 12 hours a day, but much more. Sometimes, figuratively speaking, they work “25 hours”, and their “legal” weekends and holidays are completely devoted to the same work. Increasingly, the other halves of workaholics complain that their work is not only in first place, but also in second, third, fourth, fifth and tenth place. There are two types of people who like to “work” overtime – those who are chasing a career and earnings and the banal “perfectionists”.
Such people can be recognized from their school years - they are excellent students, people with a high level of responsibility. They took on any obligations, showed initiative, drew posters, remained on duty, etc., etc.
It is not surprising that any employer dreams of having just such an employee on his staff, who is ready to bend his back for the benefit of the company without fail. It is especially beneficial if this person is distinguished by endurance, good health and a strong psyche. After all, it is precisely such an employee who can devote more energy and time to work, while an employee who is burnt out from work needs a high-quality, appropriate replacement. But how beneficial is workaholism for the person himself? And doesn’t such zeal cause serious problems for the somatic and mental state?
How to live with a workaholic
All household responsibilities fall on the partner
Despite the fact that people with addiction are constantly busy with something and work tirelessly, they still start families and give birth to children. A family in which one of the parents is a workaholic suffers greatly from this. A person practically does not devote time to his partner or children, and also neglects to resolve any everyday issues. This often causes divorces.
This is especially hard for children. Lack of support from the parent, as well as attempts to imitate him, are raising another generation of people fixated on work.
In order to maintain a normal relationship with an addicted person, you need to be patient. It is also necessary to take care of his health, since he himself is not able to do this. Exhaustive work will sooner or later lead a person to a hospital bed.
Those who live with a workaholic most often have to take all responsibility for their home and family onto their shoulders. Support is also important, because a person experiences constant emotional stress.
Workaholics. Work addiction. Signs, treatment, causes of workaholism
A person who devotes himself entirely to work usually commands respect from others and looks businesslike and successful in their eyes. But there is a line between healthy hard work and dependence on work, after which workaholism begins - absolute absorption in work activity, excluding other interests.
According to most psychologists and scientists, dependence on work cannot in any way be classified as a positive phenomenon; rather, on the contrary: workaholism leads to serious health and mental problems, spoils the dependent person’s relationships with loved ones, and in general is a rather dangerous disorder. Many workaholics suffer from diseases of the cardiovascular system due to the lack of proper rest from overload at work. It sounds scary, but people die from this addiction: every year tens of thousands of deaths are recorded of those people who, figuratively speaking, “burned out at work.”
Signs of workaholism
For someone dependent on it, work is the meaning of life and the main value. Unlike a simply hardworking person, a workaholic derives pleasure from the activity itself; the result is not so important to him, so he works “for wear” and in the absence of financial need. He usually explains his passion to others as an interest in career growth and self-realization. The main signs of workaholism are expressed as follows:
- Avoidance of rest, irritation and dissatisfaction when there is no work;
- Difficulty in transitioning from work to leisure. Work matters are still constantly present in thoughts;
- Resentment towards loved ones if they do not show sufficient interest in the professional affairs of the addict;
- Showing nervousness when someone tries to distract you from thoughts about work and interest you in something else;
- Placing large professional responsibilities on one’s shoulders, as a result of which, after the completion of one task, another invariably follows;
- Demonstrate energy, self-sufficiency and confidence only in the workplace and receive satisfaction exclusively from work; outside of work - gloom, apathy, vulnerability, etc.
- Presentation of excessive demands on oneself and others in professional activities;
- Acute perception of failures at work, intolerance of criticism;
- The inability to receive joy and positive emotions from rest or any activity not related to work.
Workaholism has symptoms similar to other addictions - withdrawal from reality, rigid thinking, rapid development of involvement and intolerance to criticism. Therefore, in a number of countries, workaholism is officially recognized as a disorder requiring treatment.
Causes of workaholism
Not all people are at risk of becoming workaholics. Many of the prerequisites for the development of dependence on work originate in childhood. Thus, a child from a family where one of the parents is an antisocial person (for example, a drinking father) strives to assign a significant part of the responsibilities to himself and fulfill them perfectly. In addition, such a child often strives to become the complete opposite of a reckless father, which in adulthood results in perfectionism and, possibly, workaholism.
Often those who are the only child in the family, on whom their parents placed great hopes and demanded a lot, become dependent on work. In adulthood, the attitude remains that only through constant hard work and success can one earn love and respect.
However, a considerable part of workaholics (especially among women) are people with an unsettled personal life. They cross out experiences and losses on the personal front with vigorous work activity, during which they forget about their failures.
Types of workaholics
Psychologists distinguish three types of workaholics with their own personal characteristics and motives:
- "For your own sake." These people are primarily driven by the desire to earn a lot of money and significantly improve their standard of living. Then they are drawn into the labor process, and work becomes an end in itself, an activity that brings pleasure to them, and the opinions of other people are absolutely indifferent to them;
- "For the sake of others." Such workaholics want to prove that they are superior to others in terms of competence and performance, which turns into an obsessive desire;
- "Losers". They do not have any specific goals or intentions regarding their work activities. They work to fill time and emptiness in the soul and in life.
Treatment of workaholism
Seeing a psychotherapist is an important, but not the main condition for treating workaholism. Of course, regular sessions with a specialist will help a person understand himself and find out what motivates him and why he developed a painful addiction to work. But the main assistant in the treatment of workaholism is the workaholic himself, for whom it is important to realize the abnormality of his lifestyle and thoughts.
Family and friends can provide great support. An effective way to get rid of workaholism is to immerse the addict in an unfamiliar environment. For example, the wife of a workaholic can assign him responsibilities around the house and looking after children, interest him in various hobbies, and at the same time provide a comfortable environment. A workaholic woman should spend more time with her friends, go shopping and devote time to herself. It may not be easy at first, but gradually it will become habitual, and thoughts about work will no longer be intrusive.
Lonely workaholics will have a much more difficult time. They should organize a clear daily routine for themselves with designated hours of work, rest and household chores and strictly adhere to it. It will be useful to do yoga and meditation - this will teach you to relax.
A cure for workaholism will allow you to improve your poor health, establish contacts with family and friends, and begin to enjoy things that have nothing to do with work.
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