Watch out for signs of obsession with work...

Hard work and passion about one’s job is always applauded and held in high regard. However, an obsession about one’s job, often exiles one in the box of work and sooner or later, the person turns into a workaholic addicted to their job.

Though some might look at this as something that comes with advantages, it has far reaching negative effects.
Here are some telltale signs you might have a work obsession, and how you can overcome or avoid it.

Innocent Ntabazi, a psychiatric nurse, explains that if something affects one’s mental stability or the work of the brain, it can lead to an addiction.
However, being workaholic falls into the category of minor mental illnesses or falls in a category of obsessions and compulsions.
“We can see these in the way that someone loves something so much or does it a lot that they cannot think of doing something else,” he explains.

Why it is a mental disorder
“We call something a disorder if it affects their normal life. It may be unnoticeable to the person doing it but noticeable to others. So, if someone’s work affects them from fulfilling their other responsibilities in their life away from work, then it is a disorder,” Ntabazi explains.
He further notes that workaholism is common among people that are perfectionists about; their work, cleanliness, neatness and relationships.

Causes
According to an article on work addiction on Healthline, work addiction can result from a coexisting mental health condition, such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or bipolar disorder.

The addiction could also cause more mental health issues, such as depression.
Additionally, Racheal Nasuuna a counselling psychologist, explains that other causes of work obsession include an overwhelming desire to be the best.

“Such people have very high, almost unrealistic standards they put up for themselves and get obsessed about fulfilling them. If such standards are work related, the gratification that they get when they accomplish and achieve these standards will cause their minds to block out other things and only focus on the work,” she explains.

Furthermore, she shares that workplaces that put a lot of emphasis and pressure on employees having exceptional performance and encourage cutthroat competition amongst colleagues are at a risk of having their employees becoming workaholic due to fear of failure.

Impact
Psychology Today, a human behaviour magazine, notes that the more one gets obsessed with their work, the more it leads them to having more defence mechanisms such as denial, rationalisation (where they justify their behaviour) projection of blame, compartmentalisation (a defence mechanism used to avoid mental discomfort when a person has conflicting values within themselves), and dissociation.
All these are used to ward off any threat of failure or other related fears that surface to consciousness to shape and distort reality and ignore the impact of their behaviour on others.

Symptoms
Nasuuna further shares that symptoms that show you are obsessed about your work include but are not limited to; too much commitment to your job that may include spending many unnecessary hours/ time doing your job or things directly related to it; overwhelming fear to fail at your job or to execute a given project; not having a life outside your work, and thus spend more time doing work-related things other than other things outside your work.
Others are burying oneself in work to deal with other feelings or problems in your life. Work thus becomes the escape route from other challenges.

Remedy
“If you identify this, seek psychiatric assistance for assessment and advice. However, such a person will need support from family, friends and colleagues since you will mostly be the observers of this obsession, as the victim is lost denial,” Ntabazi notes.
Additionally, if the person already has an existing mental disorder, they need to visit a psychiatric hospital like Butabika Mental hospital for treatment.

Ntabazi adds that among the therapies that may be prescribed include occupying the person with other things other than their work; such as exercising, a sport, game, or spending time away from work with family and friends doing other activities.

“Internally, some people are fighting feelings of fear of failure which might have been caused by previous traumas, feelings of negativity and issues of esteem. So, it is important for such a person and anyone else to understand that is okay to fail, and what matters is picking up yourself after the failure. That will help someone not to hold themselves in unrealistically high standards,” says.

Work obsession diagnosis

The Bergen Work Addiction Scale is used to identify work addiction. It was developed by the University of Bergen and is accepted in the medical community. The scale measures several factors including how often certain aspects apply to your life. These items are measured on a scale of: never, rarely, sometimes, often and always.
Items you may be asked to rate include:
• You think of how you can free up more time to work.
• You work in order to reduce guilt, helplessness, depression, and anxiety.
• You’ve been told to reduce your time working but ignore those requests.
• You spend much more time working than you initially intend.
• You become stressed when you are not able to work.
• You lower the importance of hobbies, fun activities, and fitness in exchange for more work time.
•You work so much that it has negatively impacted your health.
Research related to the scale published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology indicates that if you can answer “often” or “always” to at least four of these items, you may have a work addiction. Source: HealthLine

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