The Hidden Link Between Workaholism and Mental Health
Five takeaways:
- Studies suggest workaholism is strongly linked with anxiety and depression, and while it’s commonly believed that compulsive work can cause these issues, some psychologists suggest that it could be the reverse: People may use work as a means to cope with their depression and anxiety.
- This could explain why so many people actually increased their work hours during the pandemic. Amid new anxieties and unknowns, work offered comfort and structure.
- Studies have shown that while extreme work hours may benefit one’s career, they can also lead to self-medication tactics, including new addictions to alcohol or drugs – a secondary addiction to temper the negative effects of the primary work addiction.
- Some tactics one can take to combat creeping workaholism are: auditing one’s time to get a full portrait of how it is being spent, intentionally scheduling downtime, and making sure that downtime is filled with active and intentional activities rather than passive ones like scrolling social media or binging television.
- Confronting a work addiction will lead you to confront the life issues that you may be trying, subconsciously or consciously, to avoid.
From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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