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For five years The Healthy Compulsive Project has been offering information, insight and inspiration for OCPD, obsessive-compulsive personality, perfectionism, micro-managers and Type A personality. Anyone who’s ever been known to overwork, overplan, overcontrol or overanalyze is welcome here, where the obsessive-compulsive personality is explored and harnessed to deliver what it was originally meant to deliver. Join psychotherapist, Jungian psychoanalyst and author Gary Trosclair as he delves into the pitfalls and potential of the driven personality with an informative, positive, and often playful approach to this sometimes-vexing character style.
Work Engaged, Work Addicted, Work Burned-Out
Hello everyone. This is gary Trosclair, psychotherapist, Jungian analyst and author of the healthy compulsive book, blog and podcast. Today’s episode is about work. First I explore the difference between work engagement—when you work a lot and you really love it—and work addiction where you do it a lot and you don’t enjoy it but can’t stop it either. Then, in a second article, I talk about what can eventually happen when you work a lot and it’s not going well—burnout. The psychological benefits of work can be great, especially the sense of mastery we sometimes get. but if your motivation is avoidance, and if you neglect yourself and your relationships, it can cause serious problems.
This is episode 27 of the healthy compulsive project podcast, work engaged, work addicted and work burned out.
I lived next to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the north shore of Long Island for a year. “The Lab,” as it’s known, is home to Jim Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of human DNA, and many other dedicated and successful scientists. I was fortunate to meet a number of them, and they come to mind when I think about what work addiction is and is not.
They were passionate about science and they worked tirelessly. One of them wrote a book called We Can Sleep Tomorrow, which tells us a lot about how they operate. It was not unusual for them to work through the night, and they didn’t always sleep the next day. Sometimes this meant neglecting their families. It usually meant neglecting their own self-care. Not a lot of life-work balance happening there. But would you say these guys were addicted to work?
I can’t generalize about whether they had work addiction, or whether they were just deeply engaged in their pursuit of science. Nor can I speak of individual cases because I didn’t get to know them well enough. But I do think such distinctions are determined largely by what’s motivating the urge to work beyond what's expected: Are we moving toward something or away from something?
Behavioral Addictions
The idea that you can become addicted to a behavior has become accepted by researchers: gambling addictions, exercise addictions, and internet addictions are pretty well established as behavioral addictions, or process addictions.[i]
Here are some indications that you may be addicted to a behavior:
Salience: the activity becomes the most important thing in your life.
Mood modification: doing the activity makes you feel better at first.
Tolerance: you need to spend more time doing the activity to get the high.
Withdrawal symptoms: when not doing the activity you feel uncomfortable.
Conflict: a battle evolves within yourself or with people around you about how much time you spend in the activity.
Relapse: you try to stop the activity but fail.
Notice two themes here:
Avoidance of bad feelings comes to be, or always has been, the motivation for the addictive activity.
Activity that felt good at first becomes necessary simply to keep from feeling bad.
Then you may feel like Sisyphus, the Greek King of Corinth who was cursed by the gods to keep pushing a rock up a hill only to have it fall down again each day. In short, they punished him for trying to act like and immortal when he was really just a mortal. This sort of hubris, a denial of human limitations, can lead us to work addiction. And the image of rolling that rock up the hill everyday is a good one for what it feels like to be addicted to work. He didn't want to keep rolling that rock up the hill: he had too. And that's work addiction.
Work Addiction
The research regarding work addiction specifically is still emerging. It’s not the kind of calamitous problem that has foundations clamoring to fund it. But while researchers disagree about just what constitutes work addiction, many conclude that work can become destructively addictive.[ii]
Take this test designed by Mark Griffiths at Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, The Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS),[iii] to see whether you might have a work addiction. Ask yourself whether you do the following: (1)=Never, (2)=Rarely, (3)=Sometimes, (4)=Often, and (5)=Always.
You think of how you can free up more time to work
You spend much more time working than initially intended
You work in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness and depression
You have been told by others to cut down on work without listening to them
You become stressed if you are prohibited from working
You deprioritise hobbies, leisure activities, and exercise because of your work
You work so much that it has negatively influenced your health
If you respond ‘often’ or ‘always’ on at least four of the seven items, it indicates that you might have a work addiction.
Moving Toward and Moving Away From: John and Frank
Notice in particular number 3 from this self-test: working in order to reduce guilt, anxiety, helplessness and depression. That’s moving away from a feeling rather than moving toward it.
Let’s compare these motivations in two different people to see how they actually look.
John works long hours at his job as an attorney. He loves the challenge his career presents. He likes solving problems and catching mistakes when he edits documents. He enjoys advising his clients and delivering the finished product to them. When he finishes work he goes bike riding, spends time with his wife or reads. Whether he’s working or playing, he’s moving toward what he enjoys and what’s good for him.
Frank is also an attorney and works about as many hours as John. While he’s not crazy about the work, it sure beats the alternative. When he isn’t working he’s restless, anxious, empty and depressed. Insecure, really. He has a gnawing feeling that there is something he should be taking care of and isn’t. He was a star in law school, but never really believed what they said about him. He still fears he'll be found to be a fraud. He dreams of being chased. He drinks a lot to let go and watches television to divert himself when he can’t work. He likes the idea of vacation but usually feels miserable once he gets there. He’s increasingly isolated. He’s always moving away from uncomfortable feelings, not toward the things he enjoys or values.
Work Engagement Versus Work Addiction
John and Frank serve as good examples of the difference between work engagement and work addiction, terms coined by psychology researcher Wilmar Schaufeli at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Schaufelli says that work engagement is characterized by a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind, including vigor, dedication and absorption. Work addiction is characterized by a need to work that's so exaggerated it endangers health, reduces happiness, and deteriorates interpersonal relations and social functioning.[vi]
John is work-engaged. Frank is work-addicted.
If you are motivated by the fulfillment of work, it is more of a desire and less of a need. You are less likely then to neglect your well-being or your relationships. If you feel the need to avoid feelings of insufficiency, that pressure is more likely to override your motivation to take care of yourself and nurture your relationships.
Motivation: What Are You Working For?
Whether you are work engaged or work addicted is determined not just by the amount of time you spend working, but also by your motivation for working. Clearly, even with the best motivation for work, spending all of our time working is not healthy. And our motivations are never pure. But if too much of the motivation is to avoid feelings of insecurity or to avoid disapproval from others, it can lead to desperate over-working and a poor work life-balance.
Some people are compelled to work because they feel passionate about it and find it rewarding. Others who have become work-addicted were originally motivated by positive feelings—moving toward the good feelings of mastery that come with achievement. But they began using work to alleviate feelings of insecurity, using work to move away from those bad feelings rather than toward the good feelings. This becomes a deeply entrenched habit, and because it really doesn't solve the problem, it actually can make us feel worse.
With reflection, attunement to the body, and careful attention to the feelings that drive us we can become aware of our motivations and make more conscious decisions. With commitment and intention we can return to our original motivations, the deep compelling urges that originally inspired us to work hard, and ask whether those are still being honored.
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[i] M. D. Griffiths, "A ‘Components’ Model of Addiction within a Biopsychosocial Framework " Journal of Substance Use, 10 (2005).
[ii] M. D. Griffiths, "Workaholism Is Still a Useful Construct.," Addiction Research and Theory 13 (2005).
[iii] Andreassen, C. S., M. D. Griffiths, J. Hetland, and S. Pallesen. "Development of a Work Addiction Scale." Scand J Psychol 53, no. 3 (Jun 2012): 265-72. Used with permission.
[iv] Andreassen, C. S. "Workaholism: An Overview and Current Status of the Research." J Behav Addict 3, no. 1 (Mar 2014): 1-11.
[v] Di Domenico, S. I., and R. M. Ryan. "The Emerging Neuroscience of Intrinsic Motivation: A New Frontier in Self-Determination Research." Front Hum Neurosci 11 (2017): 145.
[vi] Schaufeli, W.B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V. and Bakker, A.B. (2002a), ‘The measurement of engagement and burnout: a confirmatory factor analytic approach’, Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71–92.
Burnout: What Happens When You Ignore Messages From Your Unconscious
People with obsessive-compulsive personality and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) are driven to be as productive and perfect as possible. There are good aspects to this. But both the amount of work that compulsives do, and how they approach work can become self-destructive.
When this happens, something inside may go on strike to try to self-correct. Body and soul try to slow things down when they see danger ahead. But if the driven part insists on slogging forward with more work, the result is the painful standoff known as burnout.
Carl Jung, the early 20th century Swiss psychiatrist, believed that human psychology operates as a self-balancing system: when one part takes control and goes too far in one direction, another part of the system will try to compensate and push the individual in the other direction. Usually it works reasonably well. But nature isn't perfect, and sometimes the system gets stuck. This often happens to those with OCPD.
What Does Burnout Look Like?
Here are some characteristics of burnout:
• Memory and concentration difficulties
• Exhaustion and physical complaints
• Anxiety
• Irritability and anger
• Depressed mood, cynicism, indifference, self-attack
• Impatience with others and a desire to isolate
• Need to be busy, and difficulty resting
In most situations we get the message that something is off and we change how we're living. But this particular combination of problems makes it hard to change. We'll get to that. But first, let's see how it gets to this point.
What Makes Burnout Worse for Compulsives?
Here are some characteristics of compulsives that make them especially vulnerable to burnout:
• Need for control. If you need to control the process too much it can feel like you’re beating your head against the wall. Everything feels harder. This hits compulsives where they feel it the most.
• Need for validation. It's very human to want to be appreciated for what you do. But if you need to get it from everyone or even just certain people, and you don't get it, work will feel exhausting. Compulsives feel a deep need for respect. And respect gives them energy. But when the diligence they put into their work is unrecognized, they may become depleted.
• Need for Efficiency. Most compulsives prize efficiency, and when interpersonal conflicts get in the way of production, it lowers their morale.
• Unrealistic goals. If you keep planning to solve 50 problems and you only get to 15 of them, you may find it discouraging or even depressing. You may fear a loss of status if you don’t succeed at your goals.
• Too much emphasis on work. All of these problems are magnified when the compulsive invests primarily in their work life at the expense of self-care, relationships, and leisure. There is little to balance or dilute work problems when those are the main focus of your life. As one subject in a study said: “I don’t see people, but prospective customers. I don’t even know who they are. I don’t remember them. They’ve been objects for me for some time now.”
• Loss of connection with your inner life. Unhealthy compulsives lose track of what's most important to them, and in particular with their original motivations. Any messages from inside that would help to slow down are "heroically" silenced.
What Makes it Hard to Act on Messages From Your Unconscious
Even when you do get the message that you need to stop working so hard, two tendencies often make it difficult:
1.The neurochemical addiction to work.
2. The need to prove your value with work.
Together they're almost unstoppable. They can override any message from the unconscious that you're out of balance.
Work Addiction
You might be tired of working, but you can’t stop. You crave the gratification of crossing things off a list, but detest what your work requires of you. You feel worse and worse, but the only way you know to try to feel better is to get more work done.
A study published in the European Journal of Economics and Business Studies concluded that work addiction often leads to burnout. As one woman in the study said, “I have to keep doing it, I don’t know why, but I have to. If I’m not working, I’m not there, I’m not alive.”
Some people become burned out because they are forced by circumstances to work excessively, not because they like crossing things off a list. In this post I'm primarily addressing work burnout which begins with personal inclination (such as compulsive personality traits) rather than circumstances. But in many cases these overlap; some become addicted to work over time due to circumstances, and the situation aggravates an inclination that was dormant before.
Work can be just as addictive as substances for some people. While we don’t have solid research to back this up yet, there are reasons to believe that compulsives get a neurochemical reward for crossing things off their lists. For some people a few hits of endorphins for being productive makes them want more.
So, work addiction at its most advanced stage puts you on the road to burnout. And beware. Denial is the favorite defense mechanism of people who are addicted.
The Need to Prove Yourself
This problem becomes even more intractable if you feel that you need to prove yourself with productivity. It may be such a deeply ingrained part of your psychological strategy that it's scary to stop. Many compulsives enlist their natural determination to be productive and meticulous to show to themselves and others that they're worthy of respect. I've explored this need to prove worth in more detail in a separate post.
Solutions: The Obvious and the Not So Obvious
The solutions may seem obvious. You’ve heard them a million times. Achieve Work-Life Balance. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
But it’s more complicated than just doing other things and working less.
True, you will need to put meaningful activities in place of your addiction to work.
And you will need to recognize and acknowledge that how you work is problematic, and that you've developed a work addiction that's led to burnout. As with any addiction you will go through withdrawal when you try to change; it won’t feel good, and you may be tempted to give in to your addiction before you get to the other side. Remember though, as with any addiction, once you get over the worst of the withdrawal you'll feel better.
To maintain "sobriety" and heal from burnout you'll also need to face the deeper causes that lead you down that road. Otherwise you'll continue to get pulled off a healthier track.
Here are four questions that will help you get moving in the right direction:
1. What might your unconscious be protesting about in its rebellion?
2. What are you trying to prove by working so hard?
3. What feelings, situations or relationships are you trying to avoid by working so hard?
4. What did you originally want to accomplish when you began working on this project?
A Fourteenth Century Warning That You've Lost Your Way
I'm going to end this post with a poem by Hafiz, the 14th century Sufi poet who gave us some advice on determining when we're off course. This an excerpt from his poem Someone Untied Your Camel, rendered in English by Daniel Landinsky.
Hafiz sets a very high bar here. But it just might motivate you to slow down and listen to what your unconscious has to say to you.
Is your caravan lost?
It is,
If you no longer weep from gratitude or happiness,
Or weep
From being cut deep with the awareness
Of the extraordinary beauty
That emanates from the most simple act
And common object.
My dear, is your caravan lost?
It is if you can no longer be kind to yourself
And loving to those who must live
With the sometimes difficult task of loving you.