Part 1: Working Ourselves to Death

We live in a paradoxical culture where many equate being with doing. Consequently, there is great emphasis placed on personal production over against personality. But at the same time, our culture broadcasts an unobtainable vision of the “good life” being a life of complete leisure. This certainly sends a barrage of confusing signals to people who are part of this strange and wonderful culture in which we all live.

Over the next few days, I want us to explore workaholism. Workaholism is a process oriented addiction that can permeate every area of a person’s life. Furthermore, as an addiction, it is no respecter of race, religion or socioeconomic status. For people who are work addicted, the disease can infiltrate any and every aspect of one’s existence.

In her book, Never Good Enough, co-founder of The Bridge to Recovery, Carol Cannon, points out many of the characteristics common to all who struggle with an addiction to work. Several are noteworthy here:

They live to work rather than work to live. For the work addicted, work becomes a primary source of one’s identity. A lie is cultivated within that tells the work addict that he or she can’t live, move or breathe if not working.

They get high on multi-tasking. When work addicted people multi-task, they don’t have to feel their feelings. Instead, they enjoy the benefits derived from the manufacturing of their own adrenaline.

They operate in hyper drive. The American Heritage dictionary defines hyperdrive as, “A state of heightened activity or concentration.” This state of being is one way that a progressive illness such as work addiction will isolate its carrier. Work addicts value production over connection with others. The more work a workaholic does, the better s/he feels but the less connected s/he becomes with others. This works fine until some sort of personal crisis leaves the workaholic unable to cope due to a lack of support.

They lose touch with reality. People who are work addicted have bought into the lie that they are human doings. With that being the case, they often find themselves believing that they are exempt from the laws that govern the rest of the universe. This often results in unrealistic expectations about how much time certain projects take or how long it takes to get to an appointment across town. Workaholics routinely over-commit and sometimes they will carelessly double book themselves. They simply don’t have a firm grasp on reality.

They become irritable when interrupted. If you ever come between addicts of any kind and their drugs of choice, watch out! Addictions of any kind fuse with our identities both fueling and feeding our drives and urges. A workaholic must work in order to feel complete. When you stand between the work addicted and his/her drug of choice, you will be perceived as a distraction or obstacle to that drug of choice. Thus, the work addict will become unnecessarily angered by any sort of interruption to his or her work.

When trying to determine whether or not you might have a work addiction, it is important to look less at what and how much you do and more at why you are doing what you do. After an honest exploration into why, people who are work addicted typically discover a number of underlying reasons they are working themselves to death. In our next Bridge Blog we will explore in more depth some of these underlying reasons.

If you suspect that you might be a workaholic, The Bridge to Recovery can help. For more information about our program, please visit our website at www.thebridgetorecovery.com or call us at 877-866-8661.

Also, for more information about Workaholism, please visit the Workaholics Anonymous website www.workaholics-anonymous.org