Workaholics, or those people addicted to their jobs, may not associate themselves with drug addicts, but a new study suggests that the two addictions share many common symptoms.
Workaholics are those people who cannot pull themselves away from work. They forego vacation and personal days to spend time at the job and it usually results in issues with both their social lives and health.
But is workaholicism an actual addiction? A new study done in Norway suggests that the answer is "yes."
The University of Bergen in Norway is one of the first groups to look at a national sample to study workaholics. They used a specific scale to identify those people who are, in fact, addicted to their work. Many of these factors are very similar to those suffering from other addictions.
Workaholics tend to think of how they can free up more time for work, meaning that they place less prioritization on leisure activities and exercise. They become stressed when not working, feeling guilt, anxiety and even depression. They spend more time working than intended and are often told by others to cut back. Workaholics also work so much that they compromise their health.
"If you reply 'often' or 'always' to at least four of these seven criteria, there is some indication that you may be a workaholic," says study lead author Schou Andreassen. "This is the first scale to use core symptoms of addiction found in other more traditional addictions."
Americans are especially addicted to work. Not only does the U.S. rank fifth in the world as one of the most work-obsessed countries, but the U.S. is the only first-world country that doesn't guarantee paid vacation and holidays for its workers. However, 75 percent of Americans who get vacation time don't use all of it. And many of those Americans work through their vacation time, even when away from the office.
Workaholism is bad for your health. It can cause stress, fatigue, insomnia, depression, substance abuse and even physical health effects, such as heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes and stroke. Workaholics also have compromised immune systems, leaving them open to a host of other illnesses.
"As workaholism is not a formal diagnosis the development of treatment models and real treatment offers has been lacking. The fact that more than eight per cent of the general work population [in Norway] seems to suffer from workaholism underlines the need for proper treatment and other relevant interventions," says Andreassen.
