Stressors from Work Addiction
What is a work addiction? This is a great question, and if you have found yourself wondering if you have an unhealthy relationship with work then you came to the right place! Work addiction arises when you become so focused on your career or work that it consumes your daily cognitive functioning to where it begins to impact your daily living.
For example, if you do not go out with your friends because you are worried about being available for a work call on a weekend or after office hours this could be a start of being addicted to your work. You are choosing to place work first over everything else and the job satisfaction you receive outweighs the satisfaction of other basic life functioning. Individual counselors in Orlando suggest analyzing the entirety of your values, and assess the time given to each of them.
LIVE TO WORK OR WORK TO LIVE?
How does work addiction start? It can start when there is a high volume of stressors present within your workplace. These stressors are difficult to deal with and can cause anxiety to arise which can give rise to a work addiction. You become addicted to work in the hopes of reducing or not feeling the anxious thoughts and feelings. Stress caused from work is hard to manage, but it can also be managed as well. Valuing time for yourself and how to go about this can be a great starting point.
The gratification and appreciation you receive from work is external validation and while it serves a purpose, internal validation needs to be the first step in fulfilling. Internal validation would be understanding and justifying why you are doing something for yourself and having a positive self-image of yourself. Most of all, it is confidence within yourself. If you find this hard to obtain, talk with an anxiety counselor in Orlando about how to help with work addiction. That is a great place to start in order to increase self-validation.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR WORTH
Work addiction requires you to have high internal validation and allow yourself to believe that work is work. It will be there the next day but the time that is meant to be used for you. Time is something you won’t be able to get back and a work addiction takes that time away from you. Work addiction is tough and that is why therapy can help with building and establishing strong coping strategies to navigate the realm of stressors presented in the workplace. For more support, read our work boundaries blog. At Orlando Thrive Therapy we offer individualized support in career, stress management and anxiety to support you and your boundaries. You're not alone!
