How to deal with addiction to work? 6 effective strategies

Work dignifies and we need it to survive, that's why food costs money and money, in most cases, is obtained by working. The ideal is to get to enjoy our work, that satisfies us and fills us up, although we will always have to make some sacrifice and do something we don't like, but that's life.

It's okay to be a hard-working and responsible person, but with a limit. It is one thing to meet work objectives and another is to make them occupy our entire schedule. Some people can develop a true addiction to work.

In the paragraphs below We are going to see what is meant by addiction to work and we will see how to deal with it with some tricks that we can incorporate into our working lives.

• Related article: "Psychology of work and organizations: a profession with a future. Psychologists in companies, their functions and their importance for the health of corporations."

How to face and overcome work addiction

Work addiction can be defined as the excessive and pathological need to comply with the job responsibilities, putting in more hours than necessary, or investing extra effort in tasks labor. The workaholic person dedicates most of his day to work, something that is detrimental to his free time, which he could spend with family, friends, dedicate it to his hobbies or his self care.

In recent years, awareness has been generated about addiction to work but using the term of English origin “workaholism”, a combination of “work”, that is, “work”, and “alcohol”. This addiction by itself has nothing to do with alcoholism, but it can be compared to the addiction that alcoholics present with respect to this substance. In the case of workaholic people, their addiction is behavioral rather than to a substance, as is the case of people addicted to sex, shopping, video games...

It's not called workaholic for nothing. People who suffer from this problem have a dysfunctional relationship with work, unable to detach from it, feeling real refrain from detaching from work, feeling great anxiety and worry about not being carrying it out just. Overwork and poor management of it bring physical and mental problems, consequences of symptoms such as stress, work dependency, emotional instability, irritability...

As with substance addictions, at work there is a process of tolerance. There comes a point where the workaholic person, despite trying hard, is not happy with the result they have obtained, even though it is a good one. This means that you have to work more and more to feel good, having to dedicate more hours and efforts, with greater detriment to both your personal and social life and self-care.

• You may be interested in: "Dysfunctional Perfectionism: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment"

How did the workaholic phenomenon arise?

Each person is different and what may have pushed them towards work addiction is very varied. However, it is considered that a common pattern in workaholic people is that they grew up in the within a family where love was given based on the success, achievements and academic performance of its children. It is not uncommon to find workaholics who say they grew up in an environment where they had to earn the love of their parents, whether it was having good grades at school or obtaining recognition and prizes in sports competitions, instrumental concerts, dance, chess...

In addition, in a society marked by the conception that the more productive one is, the better, this becomes the breeding ground for this dysfunctional relationship with work to emerge. Socially, a person who proves to be hardworking is highly valued, even when his overwork is taking a toll on his physical and mental health. This social appreciation does a disservice to the workaholic, who seeks the acceptance and admiration of his closest social environment.

As with many behavioral addictions, addiction to work goes largely unnoticed, being an underestimated and little recognized phenomenon. The psychological discomfort suffered by the workaholic person is difficult to assess. The diagnosis is made only when the physical symptoms, such as not sleeping well or having stomach aches, and the psychological ones, such as extreme anxiety, become very evident.

This prevents an effective diagnosis and usually occurs when the physical and mental discomfort of the person is already is in an advanced stage, or when you have suffered a serious illness such as a heart attack or stroke panic. You urgently need to take a complete break from work.

• Related article: "Time management: 13 tips to make the most of the hours of the day"

What can we do?

As we have commented, addiction to work brings with it stress and anxiety, problems with family, friends and the personal sphere by not spending enough time with them. The workaholic person cannot stop thinking about work tasks even when he is on vacation or trying to fall asleep in her bed, which brings lack of rest and insomnia.

Work addiction is a serious problem that should be treated with the help of a specialized psychotherapist. Here are some recommendations for maintaining a healthy work-life balance for workaholics:

1. Modify scale of labor values

A first step is to try to modify the scale of values ​​about work, trying to stop giving it more importance than it requires. Life is full of things to enjoy, such as family, friends and playful activities. To be happy, we must give greater prominence to the small pleasures of life and let work occupy only the necessary time and effort.

For this reason, we must make an effort and spend more time with our loved ones, enjoy our hobbies and forget about work for a moment. Sport can also be of great help to us, combating stress and anxiety about returning to work while doing an activity that, thanks to endorphins, gives us a feeling of calm and well-being mental.

• You may be interested in: "The 10 types of values: principles that govern our lives"

2. Limit the number of tasks

One of the main problems of people addicted to work is that they do not know how to set limits., accepting as many tasks as they can under the belief that the more they work, the better valued they will be. It is true that doing some extra homework can be good for us to earn a little more money or get our boss or colleagues do us favors in the future, however, we cannot expect to do absolutely all.

3. work, at work

To the extent possible, we must limit the time we dedicate to work and dedicate ourselves to work tasks only in the office. Non-business hours, weekends, vacations and other times where we don't have to work and are not paid for it are not the right time to fill it with more work.

Very important: if the computer is our main work tool, we should not use it after work in order to completely disconnect.

• Related article: "6 steps to achieve the balance between your work and your life"

4. Avoid perfectionism

Human beings are imperfect by nature., so obsessing over doing everything absolutely right and great is practically impossible. Naturally, we will have to carry out the tasks with a certain decorum, style and well done, but not we can dedicate more hours than necessary to finish something that with less time and effort is already done good.

The goal is to deliver good quality work, but you cannot continue to refine it endlessly.

5. Better little and good than much and bad

Efficiency is not measured in the time we dedicate to something, but how well we do it. You can be very productive by dedicating the minimum amount of time necessary to someone.. We must fight against the belief that by sacrificing our free time we are better workers, and internalize the fact that what is already well done does not need further tweaking or extra effort to improve.

Working long hours decreases productivity, destroys our creativity and affects personal relationships.

6. Delegate functions

One problem that workaholics have is that they don't trust their coworkers and prefer to take on all the tasks before delegating. This is a big mistake, because in addition to affecting our health and taking up time, it worsens relationships in the office as others feel that we don't value them.

We must assume a reality: if the rest of the workers are with us, it's for a reason. They are people with skills, experience and the ability to do the tasks that this job requires, so it is totally convenient to delegate tasks to them and avoid taking away those that are already assigned to them. This will improve the social environment and take a great weight off our shoulders.

Knowing how to ask other colleagues for help is not a sign of weakness, but a good way to avoid reaching extreme fatigue and stop being productive.