Workaholism as a way to escape. Workaholism is a disease

A workaholic is a person who perceives work as the only means of self-realization. His love for this activity is too great, according to other people. So much so that it goes far beyond the usual industriousness. Many consider this trait a disease. But is it really so?

Definition

Previously, workaholics were perceived by the majority positively. Their desire to work and improve in their professional field caused others only respect and a desire to praise. But now in the yard of the XXI century - a time when almost any hobby or quality of a person is considered as a deviation from the norm or even a disease.

The fact is that a workaholic is a person for whom work and career are the most important things in life. Family, recreation, entertainment fade into the background. And this is normal, because everyone has their own goals in life. But most psychologists have come to the conclusion that workaholism is injurious to health.

Opinions

Some believe that if a person works in the sweat of his brow, then he is unhappy. And he just hides behind his work. In rare cases, this is true - a person really copes with his problems, plunging into business with his head. But often this statement is wrong. Many people simply like to improve professionally and achieve success in their careers. It really brings joy.

And psychologists also assure that an overly hardworking person may not notice how he will harm himself. Lack of sleep, chronic overwork - all this can cause somatic or mental illness. There is some truth in this too. Still, sleep is the most important part of our life, necessary for maintaining health. But many workaholics forget about it, which sooner or later makes itself felt.

Psychology of Personality

A workaholic is a person just like everyone else. But with their own characteristics.

So, for example, it is difficult for him to switch to another activity, even if he has finished work. And if he does rest, thoughts of her do not allow him to completely relax. That is why he feels confident and energetic only during work. If he is not busy with anything fruitful and useful, then he has a feeling of irritation and dissatisfaction. An overly industrious person perceives the absence of affairs as laziness and idleness. And, of course, if he meets someone, then the conversation usually leads only about work.

Other qualities

In other words, a workaholic is a person for whom his professional activity is life. Many consider this feature abnormal. But it's actually pretty good. So this man goes to work as a holiday. He likes her, he loves her and enjoys her. Many people would like to be the same. Why? Because the vast majority actually struggle to get up in the morning to reluctantly get dressed and go to work they hate, where they will look at the clock every 10 minutes, waiting for the end of the day. They do not like the salary, the boss irritates, they burden their duties. But for a workaholic, the opposite is true. He is successful, he has goals, prospects. Yes, it is difficult for him to relax and learn to be distracted from work. But if you want, you can achieve it. But to fall in love with a hated job and learn to enjoy it is much more difficult.

Signs of a workaholic

A person for whom his work is the meaning of life can be recognized by some features. He is stubborn - does not hesitate to focus on details and details. Sometimes such a person is overly detailed. He is distinguished by systemic thinking, well-developed logic and straightforwardness. Getting started is inspiring. When he starts any activity, he becomes more energetic and cheerful.

Often these people are afraid of the possibility of making a mistake. If they find any discrepancy, they begin to double-check everything from the very beginning. It is not uncommon for workaholics who work with someone on a team to behave strangely, according to others. They double-check what others have done, try to find an error, a typo, a blot. Others may perceive this as disrespect or distrust. But in fact, this quality is just the desire to make everything perfect. This sometimes interferes, but such is the specificity of a workaholic.

How to learn to rest?

Well, the above was briefly told about who a workaholic is. Or is it bad to be? There is no universal answer, since everyone has their own opinion on this matter. But one thing is certain. Rest is still necessary. And since it is difficult for a workaholic to do this, it is worth talking about how to learn to relax.

First, all things must be done in advance. If a person is an office worker, this is not difficult to implement. Reports, reports, projects - everything needs to be prepared in advance. A week or two ahead. This is how you get rid of intrusive thoughts about what needs to be done. Having carved out a few free days, you need to go to a place where nothing reminds you of work. Since workaholics accumulate a lot of weekends and holidays, you can go abroad. This will affect any person. Even for the most avid workaholic. After all, in new country for him everything will be unfamiliar, interesting, and this will captivate him.

If such a prospect of relaxation does not seem tempting, then you can resort to another option. Namely - to a voluntary business trip. You can combine business with pleasure - go abroad for some long seminar or forum. This form of relaxation for a workaholic will be more familiar. It will benefit, but at the same time it will be distracted and dissipated.

Classification

Interestingly, workaholics are even divided into types. The first one is the most common in modern society. This is the so-called workaholic "for himself." He likes everything, and he does not look for any excuses for his fanatical love for his own work. You can tell it's your way happy man. Most often, by the way, this is a workaholic man. Well, or a self-confident woman.

The second type is workaholics "for others". They would do well to become more relaxed and take time to rest, as they explain their desire to work hard by the desire to improve financial situation of his family. Or help the company.

The third type is "successful". Most often combined with the first. A successful workaholic goes to work like a holiday, and thanks to his qualities he achieves career heights.

The fourth type is the "loser". People who do any job. Whatever they were assigned. Petty, unnecessary, unimportant. At the same time, they try to do it as best as possible, but because of such trifles, they fail to achieve significant success.

And finally, the fifth type. Hidden workaholic. These people are quite interesting. They realize that their desire to work is too brightly expressed. They don't want others to see it. Therefore, in front of the rest, they assure that they hate their work and that they do not want to do it at all. Although in fact the opposite is true.

How to become a workaholic?

As mentioned above, many people would like to love their job and run to it with joy. You can become a workaholic, but this requires powerful motivation and work on yourself.

First, you need to awaken in yourself an interest in your activities. You have to fall in love with your work, set some goals, take on an unusual project. Deep down, a person should have a feeling that he really likes to work. This often helps to create the right atmosphere. An office worker, for example, might take on a project and stay at work overnight while everyone goes home. Be alone with yourself and the official atmosphere. This can awaken the right thoughts, put you in a working mood, help you concentrate. A person, in the end, will feel like the owner of the office. In general, you need to love your work and make it more diverse.

Consequences

A fanatical desire to work, even going beyond workaholism, is fraught with serious consequences. It will not be easy, first of all, for the family members of such a person. Conflicts and even divorce are not ruled out. This can be understood because close person A workaholic needs attention, love and care. If he does not provide this soul mate, the relationship will be destroyed.

Due to lack of sleep and fatigue, diseases of the digestive and cardiovascular systems can develop. It is not excluded the appearance of mental disorders, stress, insomnia, paranoia. If a person has really crossed all the boundaries of understanding workaholism and excessive love for work, he should think about it. Rest, healthy sleep, proper nutrition and spending time with your soulmate - all this should become an integral part of his life. If the situation is very deplorable, antidepressants will help. They are appointed by the appropriate specialist.

How to act relatives?

Fanatical workaholics rarely think about their special attitude to work. Much more often it worries their loved ones. And they want to know how to convince the person they care about to relax more and take time for themselves.

Getting started on fixing a workaholic will be tricky. The first thing to learn is that in no case should you solve the problem with cries of hopelessness and tirades that a career will only aggravate the situation. You need to understand that work for a workaholic is the most important thing in his life. And accept it. You can not say those words that can hurt him. It is better to act by the method of bringing arguments and evidence. You can say the following: “Didn't you think that it would not hurt you to set aside a couple of days for yourself to rest? This would be a good idea. You will be able to gain strength to start working more productively and successfully. Your productivity has been declining lately. Set aside a few days for yourself to unwind and relax. This will increase your chances of being productive.”

Such words will help to convince a person that he really could not hurt the rest. Because he will perceive relaxation not as a way to relieve tension, but as an investment in successful work.

Outcome

As you can see, workaholism is a very interesting and controversial topic. People who like their work are becoming rarer now. And, no matter what psychologists think about it, workaholism is more positive quality. But in everything there should be a measure. Because otherwise it will really be considered a disease. And the person will need serious help.

Ludmila Zaglada | 12/23/2014 | 213

Ludmila Zaglada 23.12.2014 213

Charles Darwin believed that it was labor that made man out of apes. On the one hand, work is an opportunity to be realized in life. But, on the other hand, painful attachment to work becomes a disease - workaholism.

No wonder the words "alcoholism" and "workaholism" are similar. Coined the word "workaholic" in the 70s. American psychotherapist Wayne Oates. It first occurred to him that a pathological passion for work is akin to a craving for drink. That is, both alcoholics and workaholics are unhealthy people. Only now the former are often declared villains, and the latter, on the contrary, are heroes and ascetics. And they also need to be treated ...

Workaholic - how to calculate it?

In fact, it is very easy to distinguish just a hardworking and responsible person from a workaholic. The main criterion: a workaholic is not interested in the result of work, but in the process itself.
A normal hard worker, having set a task for himself, enjoys finishing the job. But for a workaholic, the end of work is terrible. That is why he often deliberately delays the process, creates additional difficulties for himself. If only to revel in work as long as possible, not leaving a single minute for personal affairs.

It is important to note that workaholics have many problems:

they are pathologically afraid of free time;
they may have communication problems;
they do not want to take responsibility for everyday situations;
they don't know how to make decisions.

And you can get away from these "terrible" things in different ways. For example, every day drown your fear in a bottle. Or go to the illusory world computer games. Or ... pore until night on some report. And so every day, without holidays and weekends. Workaholism is no different!

Symptoms of workaholism

There are several main symptoms of workaholism.

Do you feel discomfort when you are not doing official business, and weekends and holidays consider it a waste of time.
You never allow yourself to part with a mobile phone, laptop or other means of communication because of the risk of not resolving a force majeure situation that has arisen.
Do you feel annoyed when you see colleagues who are not involved in the work process or spend work time for activities that are not directly related to the performance of official duties.
You feel much more comfortable in the walls of your own office than at home.
You communicate with people, as a rule, only on professional themes, and conversations of a different nature are a burden to you.
Your family, relatives, acquaintances and friends gradually fade into the background and third plans.

Male disease

Men are more likely to be workaholics. After all, society requires more responsible behavior from men. And you must admit, not everyone is ready to play the role of a “stone wall” all their lives.

In addition, workaholics are predominantly people intellectual labor. If a person wants to go headlong into work, then he is unlikely to be able to dig a garden or lay sleepers for fifteen hours in a row. Physical fatigue in this case acts as a healthy "safety valve". So a man of manual labor, dreaming of escaping from life, will rather choose a “good old” bottle. But spending a day behind a computer monitor is easy!

The workaholic and his problems

At first, the workaholic notices that most of his thoughts are devoted to work. Then he begins to experience a double sense of guilt - for not completing tasks and at the same time for gradually losing touch with his family.

Sometimes this results in aggression directed at loved ones. Finally, the finished workaholic begins to live only by work. With her help, he runs away from conflicts with loved ones and does not think about confusing cause and effect. After all, conflicts are caused precisely by his unhealthy labor enthusiasm.

The disease must be treated. Therefore, in some countries, special rehabilitation centers have even been created, in which people are relieved of a pathological addiction to work. We have not reached this point yet, but, in principle, any competent psychotherapist who works with addiction problems can help the poor "hard worker". The main thing is that he himself understands his problem and wants to get rid of it.

workaholism- this is a sign of psychological distress: a person “hides behind work” due to the loss of the ability to fully communicate with others and to avoid their own unresolved, often psychological, problems.

At the heart of this disorder is a feeling of inferiority and a desire to compensate for this in some way. As a result - deep depression, turning into chronic.

Depression is based on a feeling of grief at the loss of an object (mother), which, accordingly, indicates violations of the mother/child interaction in early childhood, in the period from 1 to 3 years. hallmark workaholism is the presence of "Over ideas". Due to the "emotionally absent" or "functional mother" in early childhood, the child begins to turn on the protection, namely the compensation mechanism and the search for the missing object outside.

The child has the illusion that he can find a substitute for motherly love and support in "business" relationships, such as at school or sports section. The teenager begins to concentrate his life energy at one point, to receive attention due to "outstanding" achievements.

Usually, these are children who are not distinguished by a special “gift”, but achieve results by “cramming”. As a result, when receiving tangible success in their "professional" activities, this way of behavior is successfully consolidated and is leading in all areas of life.

Despite the fact that, even having entered into such a long-awaited love relationship, with his “object of adoration” (and the way to achieve the result remains the same - perseverance), the main focus of attention remains directed to the object that “replaced” the mother, namely career.

Therefore, workaholics family relationships, as a rule, do not add up.

When achieving “outstanding” results in the chosen professional field, or, conversely, the collapse of a career (military, athletes, representatives of show business), a person is not ready for the fact that an excess of vital energy appears, since having reached a certain level, work is already does not require such large energy investments. As a result, the individual again feels the loss of the "object".

A person feels the meaninglessness of everything that he did, devalues the results obtained and tries to find a new "idea fix" in order to feel loved and needed.

There is also such an option in which there is no depreciation of one's "Over the idea", but then there is a complete emotional burnout leading to complete mental and physical exhaustion or death at the "workplace".

The risk group, in my opinion, includes such professions: rescuers, military, intelligence officers, athletes, representatives of show business and many other professions associated with a risk to life!

Consequences of workaholism

The main consequence of workaholism is addiction! Since the work in this case is a "crutch" that supports and gives a fulcrum.

It is akin to alcohol and drug addiction, when a person can no longer exist without stimulants. Also, as mentioned above, the consequence is a chronic depressive state with somatic manifestations. In the most severe cases, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts are possible, often successfully implemented!

The workaholic himself is able to admit that he is sick, but this does not happen immediately. Rather, he understands that he is suffering and cannot understand the reason. Then the search for causes and self-knowledge begin. It is in this process that the underlying causes are realized. This is commonly referred to as a midlife crisis.

Treatment of workaholism

Treatment, in my opinion, long enough. Psychoanalysis, Jungian analysis, all types of long-term psychotherapy are suitable here. This is due, firstly, to the fact that the main reason lies in distant childhood, of which the patient may not have any memories due to infantile amnesia and repression, and secondly, with his sense of his own inferiority.

The task of the therapist is to strengthen the patient's own "I", to show his successful and self-sufficient facets of personality, which are often not recognized and denied, to support the client in his search for new interests and meanings in life.

How to cure workaholism yourself?

In my opinion, addiction cannot be cured on its own, since an individual, for many years, has in his arsenal only one way to cope with addiction - to create a new one!

An example here is the numerous cases when an alcoholic stops drinking abruptly and goes headlong into faith. It’s good if a person falls into the bosom of a church or some other official confessions, but there is a big risk of joining the ranks of some sectarian doctrine, which, accordingly, will only increase dependence! In any case, outside support is needed.

Prevention of workaholism

Prevention of workaholism should be carried out even before the birth of a child among future parents, consisting in training and explaining the parental role.

For those who are now an adult, reading this article and feeling that “everything is at stake”, I can advise you to undergo personal psychotherapy or analysis, in the modality that suits their tastes and worldview.

Trying to cope on your own can lead to more stable addictions and chronic depression, with all the ensuing consequences!

The main thing is to remember that the world is diverse and abundant, and you are not alone, even in the most difficult and hopeless situation. There will always be those who can support and help in difficult times!

You should not close yourself inside, you need to talk about your problems! After all, a person has many different ways of obtaining information, and liberation from this information is possible only with the help of words! Therefore, do not be silent about your problems and may everything be fine with you!

A person who devotes himself entirely to work usually commands the respect of others, looks businesslike and successful in their eyes. But there is a line between healthy industriousness and dependence on work, after which workaholism begins - absolute preoccupation with work, excluding other interests.

According to most psychologists and scientists, work addiction cannot be attributed to positive phenomena, rather the opposite: workaholism leads to serious health and mental problems, spoils the relationship of an addicted person 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 adequate rest from overload at the workplace. It sounds terrible, 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

Work for those who are dependent on it is the meaning of life and the main value. Unlike just a hardworking person, a workaholic enjoys precisely the activity itself, the result is not so important to him, so he works “for wear and tear” and in the absence of financial need. He usually explains his addiction to others as an interest in career growth and self-realization. The main signs of workaholism are expressed in the following:

Avoidance of rest, irritation and dissatisfaction when there is no work;
The complexity of the transition from work to leisure. Work affairs are still constantly present in thoughts;
Resentment against relatives if they do not show sufficient interest in the professional affairs of the addict;
The manifestation of nervousness when someone tries to distract from thoughts about work and interest in something else;
The imposition on one's shoulders of great professional duties, as a result of which, after the completion of one business, another invariably follows;
Showing energy, self-sufficiency and confidence only in the workplace and getting satisfaction exclusively from work; outside of work - gloominess, apathy, vulnerability, etc.
Making excessive demands on oneself and others professional activity;
Acute perception of failures at work, intolerance to criticism;
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, fast development 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 work addiction originate in childhood. So, a child from a family where one of the parents is an antisocial person (for example, a drinking father) seeks to assign a significant part of the responsibilities to himself and fulfill them perfectly. In addition, such a child often strives to become the exact opposite of a careless father, which in adulthood translates into perfectionism and, possibly, workaholism.

Often, those who are the only child in the family, on whom their parents had high hopes and demanded a lot, become dependent on work. In adulthood, the attitude remains that only constant hard work and success can earn love and respect.

However, a considerable part of workaholics (especially among women) are people with an unsettled personal life. Experiences and losses on the personal front are crossed out by stormy labor activity, during which they forget about their failures.

Types of Workaholics

Psychologists distinguish three types of workaholics with their personality traits and motives:

"For your own sake." These people are driven first 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 the work becomes an end in itself, an activity that brings pleasure to themselves, 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 in competence and performance, which turns into an obsessive desire;
"Losers". They do not have any specific goals and intentions regarding labor activity. They work to fill time and emptiness in the soul and in life.

Treatment of workaholism

Referral to a psychotherapist is an important, but not the main condition for the treatment of workaholism. Of course, regular sessions with a specialist will help a person understand himself and find out what drives him and because of which a painful addiction to work has developed. But the main assistant in the treatment of workaholism is the workaholic himself, for whom it is important to realize the abnormality of his way of life and thoughts.

Family and friends can provide great support. An effective means of getting rid of workaholism is to immerse the addict in an environment that is unusual for him. For example, the wife of a workaholic may assign him responsibilities for the home and childcare, interest in various hobbies and at the same time provide comfortable conditions. A workaholic woman should spend more time with her friends, go shopping and devote time to herself. Let it be difficult at first, but gradually it will become habitual, and thoughts about work will cease to be intrusive.

Lonely workaholics will have a much harder time. They should organize for themselves a clear regime of the day with appointed hours of work, rest and household chores and strictly observe it. It will be useful to do yoga, meditation - it will teach you to relax.

Recovering from workaholism will allow you to improve your failing health, establish contacts with family and friends, and begin to enjoy things that have nothing to do with work.

Diligence, diligence, purposefulness, responsibility, conscientiousness are qualities that cause respect and reverence in society. The presence of such character traits is often present in the requirements of the employer to the employee, and many contemporaries are doing their best to transform their personality in order to acquire such beneficial properties.

However, there is a separate group of people whose desire to work goes beyond the natural passion for the work process and diligent performance of their duties. This abnormal desire to overwork is a form of compulsive addiction - and is called "workaholism". Individuals suffering from a painful job addiction are called "workaholics".

Description

Not more than half a century ago, the presence of excessive industriousness in a person was perceived in society exclusively with approval, and workaholism was not considered as a form of psychological addiction. However, numerous Scientific research completely smashed the myth that workaholism is a favorable personality trait that allows the subject to achieve high success in building a career or move quickly up the career ladder. Today, workaholism is classified as an independent form of disorder of desires and behavior, since such dependence is irrational, uncontrollable and has an obsessive character.

Workaholism occurs with equal frequency in both men and women. The main group of workaholics are people of mature age living in urban areas. Among the villagers active labor activity more an indicator of a way of life, is an urgent need than the dependence of the peasant on the passion to work.

The main manifestation of this type of addiction is the perception by a person of his labor activity as the only existing method self-realization. The workflow for a workaholic is a method to satisfy their ambitions, to achieve recognition in society, a means that brings feelings of happiness. For such an individual, his work activity is the most significant value, overshadowing personal relationships and friendships, hobbies and hobbies, leisure and entertainment.

Labor for such a subject is a specific “shield” that protects him from everyday natural troubles. However, having once covered himself with such a “shield” - work, having experienced a feeling of pleasure from the activities carried out, the need to work eventually transforms into an obsessive addiction. The labor process not only captivates and captures the subject, but becomes the only "lifeline" rewarding with euphoria.

Depriving a workaholic of the opportunity to do work means the unattainability of the desired pleasure. This lack of labor causes a true "withdrawal", reminiscent of the withdrawal state in alcoholism. At the same time, pleasant events familiar to people do not become for a workaholic real alternative: just as an alcoholic is looking for a way to take another dose of alcohol, so a subject with a passion for work is looking for any opportunity to do business.

With workaholism, a person ceases to adequately take care of his health, ignores the signs of somatic diseases and psychological problems. Due to excessive professional loads, lack of rest, the workaholic is in a state of chronic stress, which results in serious malfunctions in the functioning of organs and systems. A frequent companion of workaholism is asthenic status, depressive disorders, phobic fears and exhausting insomnia.

The result of workaholism is a variety of social problems: narrowing the circle of friends, unfavorable climate in the family, inability to arrange a personal life. A workaholic “runs away to work”, because he cannot solve the existing psychological problems in relationships with people in a constructive way, he is not able to eliminate the internal conflict. He loses the opportunity to fully communicate with members of the human community, secluded from society in his work, which leads to the development of significant personality defects.

Signs of workaholism

It is rather difficult for a non-specialist to determine whether a person is a dependent workaholic, or whether a person’s service zeal is justified by a specific personality pattern. However, a careful look at the lifestyle and behavior of the subject reveals one significant oddity, which can be represented by the phrase: "work is all life." Let's describe a portrait of a person who became a victim of workaholism.

A diligent and diligent person is interested in the results of his work, since this is a way to create some kind of material wealth irreplaceable for life. A hard-working person enjoys the very process of performing activities, since labor allows them to show their abilities, develop new qualities, and receive recognition from society. For a workaholic, it doesn’t matter what the result of the classes will be, whether it will allow you to move one step forward in your development. The workflow is both the only available way to fill the time and the means to feel like a happy person.

A person addicted to workaholism loses the ability to objectively assess his condition: he convinces himself that he is working for some abstract goal. He does not understand that the path of occupational therapy is a dead end, and he is unlikely to be able to realize himself as a person.

A person suffering from workaholism is sincerely convinced that happiness is work. Performing some tasks, the individual feels cheerful, energetic, confident. If the matter is approaching the final, the workaholic is overcome with anxiety, he experiences disappointment and sadness. If new activities do not shine for him in the future, he panics, becomes sullen and irritable.

Often, a workaholic is characterized by excessive thoroughness in work, the desire to do everything flawlessly, the desire to be “perfect”. He often finds it difficult to make a choice, carefully weighs all the pros and cons, gets stuck on trifles for a long time. He stubbornly, even stubbornly, moves towards the goal, however, due to the fact that he betrays great importance insignificant details, does not achieve outstanding success.

Even after a busy day at work, the subject cannot switch to another activity. During meals and "forced" rest, all his thoughts are focused on planning future activities. A workaholic does not understand the very essence of leisure and is very afraid of the upcoming weekend or vacation. The emerging state of “doing nothing”, for example, due to one’s own illness, leads a person to severe depression with thoughts about the futility of existence.

Torn off from work by external circumstances, the subject feels unnecessary and restless. During forced idleness, a person can go to other extremes: drink drunkenly, lose money in a casino, start disorderly romance novels. After retiring, a workaholic often turns into a hypochondriac: he begins to overly take care of his own health, look for symptoms of some incurable diseases and knock on the thresholds of doctors.

In the circle of close people, a workaholic is a gloomy, uncompromising, irritable person. He cannot understand what his relatives want from him, he ignores the desires and needs of other family members. He prefers to "contact" with inanimate objects, since it takes less energy costs than communication with people.

Since all the thoughts of a workaholic are focused on work, he is not able to perform any household duties or just communicate with children. For him, a dinner with his family or attending an entertainment event is climbing the fire of the Inquisition.

At the same time, the workaholic perceives all activities that are not related to work as an aimless and useless pastime. This person does not spend time with friends and does not embark on love adventures. Tales of love adventures, football matches, fishing or hunting cause resentment in him.

In the lexicon of a subject suffering from workaholism, there are often phrases: “I must”, “I need”, “I promised”. Quite often, such a person sets himself unrealistic goals that cannot be achieved. Regular mistakes due to the abundance of simultaneously performed tasks are perceived by the workaholic as a personal tragedy.

He believes that he is an indispensable worker, so he strives to live up to the ideal he has imagined. The dominant feeling of such a person is irrational anxiety: he is afraid to make a mistake, to “lose face”. He is kept in constant tension by the fear that he will be accused of incompetence, frivolity, irresponsibility. This feeling of anxiety is the cause of insomnia and nightmares.

Attempts have been made to divide workaholics into individual groups, however, such classifications more convey personality traits, and do not reflect single essence dependencies, so in this article the described traits will not be presented in detail. Let us indicate one of the most objective classifications based on the level of self-esteem of the individual. Allocate:

work addicts (low self-esteem);
work enthusiasts (minor distortion of self-esteem);
enthusiastic addicts (self-esteem close to adequate).

Causes of workaholism

As with other types of addictions, there is no single cause that gives rise to workaholism. The development of addiction takes place in a particular person in his own individual way. However, all addictions are formed with one intention: the subject is trying to find a loophole in the dullness of everyday life, through which one can “escape” to an alternative “world” and find a special “happy” state.

For some people, workaholism is a consequence of an experienced traumatic situation, the negative imprints of which force them to resort to a protective mechanism - the behavior of running away. For example, a person could not competently cope with stress after a divorce from his wife or does not want to work on changing his own worldview, so he tries to hide from mental suffering at work.

Another group of workaholics became addicted to work due to abnormal childhood conditions. For example: a child grew up in a large family, where the father is an alcoholic, and the mother is a victim, pulling an unbearable burden. The kid takes steps to become the opposite of his father, striving to be like a working mother. He studies diligently, actively goes in for sports, finds a job early. He sets very high standards for himself and refuses to rest, just to compensate for the flaws of the drinking parent that disturb him.

Another negative children's attitude is the directive of parents: "all happiness is in money." The child sees by personal example that in order to achieve a good material level, his father has to work 24 hours a day (or the kid explains to himself the reason for the constant absence of his father, a businessman). By identifying himself with the parent, the child eventually forms a fixed idea: to be no less successful and rich than the father. Even without achieving any significant results, a mature individual very diligently creates a kind of employment and finds himself in the slavery of workaholism.

Another reason for workaholism is soul emptiness personality, when an individual cannot fill his world with some positive moments. He is simply bored with life, and he does not know how to fill free time. Work, like a lifesaver, comes to the rescue, first giving pleasure, and then dragging you into the net.

Workaholism is a frequent consequence of perfectionism and pedantry. A person, trying to do everything in the best possible way, constantly rechecks himself, improves his methods of work, strives to improve quality. The workaholic does not trust himself, so he is ready to constantly live by work in order to prove that he is capable of something.

Coping Methods

Since workaholism is a form of mental addiction, this addiction cannot be overcome overnight with the help of some miracle pill. Drug treatment plays a secondary role, aimed at strengthening nervous system, stabilization emotional status elimination of anxiety and fears.

The leading role in the treatment of workaholism is assigned to psychotherapeutic work aimed at the social adaptation of a person. The success of therapeutic measures is possible only if the subject recognizes the abnormality of his condition and is ready to make efforts to bring about changes in life.

The task of the psychologist: to motivate the client to communicate in society, to stimulate interest in activities other than work. The doctor explains to the workaholic that his addiction is a variant of escape from reality, which arose due to an unresolved psychological problem. The goal of the psychologist is to identify the true culprit together with the client internal conflict and try to interpret the traumatic situation in a different way. In some situations, it is advisable to resort to hypnosis techniques to eliminate the irrational components of addiction.

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