Workaholism: the snake in the grass

Rucha Sharma, 30, an entertainment sub-editor with a news organisation, in therapy for clinical depression, says she became a workaholic "because I don't like to be alone in my head as when left alone with my thoughts it all goes to hell." This was coupled with the thrill of chasing news and also the paranoia of not being the first to break news stories. Once home, she'd continue working – watch the latest web series and post her reviews online, keep her tweets and to-do lists ready for the next day. If her phone buzzed with the latest news updates at 2am, she'd jump up, write the article and promote it online. Sharma sometimes worked 18 hours a day, while barely sleeping for 12 hours per week.

In September 2015, she hit her first burnout and second one in January 2016. Both times, she was hospitalised because she couldn't leave the bed or open her eyes. Staying happily married to her job also wrecked close friendships.

To stay engaged, her therapist advised her to keep her phone away while sleeping and write her episode reviews only during her work hours. "I realised that I need to live to become a writer. Now, I don't accept more than my KRAs." She now sleeps seven hours at a stretch, does yoga every morning, eats on time, and reads two hours everyday – anything but the news.

Contrary to public belief that a workaholic perhaps adheres to American businessman Mark Cuban's slave-labourish adage – "Work like there is someone working twenty-four hours a day to take it away from you" – there are many underlining reasons why the hamster work-wheel is opted over the healthy circle of work-life balance.

Sometimes, the fault lies in your personality. Gurgaon-based senior consultant psychiarist, Dr Jyoti Kapoor Madan explains, "People with Type-A personality are highly achievement-oriented and anxious, who prefer to do things their way. They put all their effort and emotional energy into the job, but are prone to stress and work-life imbalance."

Escapists are another breed of workaholics, points out Madan. They turn into workaholics overnight in order to avoid a sudden or gradual stress-inducing life situation – from disharmony at home to the death of a loved one.

"Mostly the middle and late middle-aged get like this after, for instance, years of being in an unhappy marraige. In time, this acquired habit becomes a permanent trait."

At times, people approach her with issues they can't locate the root cause of, later found to be workaholism. One client, an airforce trainer, came to her with sudden anxiety to talk in front of a fleet, despite earlier being a natural. "Now he'd stutter, fumble and sweat. In time, I connected his anxiety to the stress of working long hours."

Diagnosed similarly was a corporate client who suddenly delved into a confused state or bouts of crying in public, "Or in psychiatric parlance, was undergoing the 'Burnout Syndrome'," says Madan.

Nutritionist, yoga trainer and pilates expert Deepmala Toshimal recalls a client, who at 50, weighed 111 kgs, was on medication for hypertension, high cholestrol, and eczema (dark, patchy and inflammed skin). He visited Toshimal thinking his weight was the root cause. But later, she found he was a workaholic, who indulged in junk food at his desk and never exercised. "I made him walk daily, stick to three large and two small home-cooked meals.

In nine months, his weight had reduced to 91 kgs, the eczema had disappeared, and body aches and pains have stopped."

Workaholics, she says, have zero breakfast, a heavy lunch, lots of coffee, and some junk food at 7-8pm, so there's no place for dinner. "I get 37-38-year-olds with high uric acid, complete burnout at 40, and lifestyle diseases such as diabeties, obsetity, hypertension and stress." She cautions those unbothered about diet to avoid corporate lunches for their high-calorie content and for the calorie-conscious, low protein diets like keto. "You are good to go with a four-day a week exercise regime, rise early, sticking to official work hours," says Toshimal. A few simple stretches during work – neck, shoulder and back exercises; short walks after lunch are an icing.

Do You Need A Break?

Take the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (2012) test that checks for salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, relapse and other problems. Maximum yes'es means you need to make some serious lifestyle changes.

• You think of how you can free up more time to work
• You spend 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
• 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