Too Much Work Can Lead to Mental Problems

Too Much Work Is Not Good

Workaholism mainly co-occurs with ADHD, OCD, nervousness, and despair. These are the results of a significant country-wide Norwegian study. The study showed that workaholics scored higher on all the psychiatric symptoms than non-workaholics.

Researchers on the University of Bergen in Norway have studied the relationship between workaholism and psychiatric issues amongst 16,426 adults. According to researcher and Clinical Psychologist Specialist Cecilie Schou Andreassen, at the Department of Psychosocial Science, at the University of Bergen (UiB), and visiting scholar at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Workaholics scored higher on all the psychiatric symptoms than non-workaholics.

Workaholics score higher on all symptoms

The results showed that workaholics scored higher on all of the psychiatric symptoms than those who are non-workaholics. Among workaholics, the principal findings had been that 32.7 percent met ADHD criteria (12.7 percent among non-workaholics), 25.6 percent met OCD criteria (8.7 percent amongst non-workaholics) and 33.8 percent met anxiety standards (11.9 percent amongst non-workaholics). In this study 8.9 percent met depression criteria (2.6 percent among non-workaholics).

The author noted, Thus, taking work to the extreme may be a sign of deeper psychological or emotional issues. Whether this reflects overlapping genetic vulnerabilities, disorders leading to workaholism or, conversely, workaholism causing such disorders, remain uncertain.

The results of this study are released in the open-access journal PLOS One, and are co-authored by researchers from Nottingham Trent University and Yale University.

Schou Andreassen further says that the findings clearly spotlight the importance of additionally investigating neurobiological deviations regarding workaholic behaviour. In wait for more research, physicians should not take for granted that a seemingly successful workaholic does not have ADHD-related or other clinical features. Their considerations affect both the identification and treatment of these disorders.

According to this study, the seven diagnostic criteria for workaholism are thinking of how you can free up more time to work, spending much more time working than initially intended, working in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness or depression; being told by others to cut down on work without listening to them, becoming stressed if you are prohibited from working, deprioritizing hobbies, leisure activities, and/or exercise because of your work and working so much that it has negatively influenced your health. Scoring 4 (often) or 5 (always) on four or more criteria identify a workaholic.

If you want to know about the latest news in medicine and to know more about maintaining good health and preventing diseases, feel free to read our other articles on this site.