Addicted to work? Maybe.

work

There’s a new instrument for measuring work addiction: The Bergen Work Addiction Scale. This new instrument is based on the elements of addiction which apply to any additive behavior: salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict relapse and problems.

Often called workaholics, the person who is addicted to work is often not taken seriously as a person with a behavioral problem. But today, due to globalization and technology, we have blurred the boundaries between work and private life. Because of that there is an increase in work addiction, says Dr. Cecilie Schou Andreassen from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Bergen (UiB). Work addiction is associated with insomnia, health problems, burnout and stress as well as creating conflict at home.

By using Andreassen’s new scale, people can test themselves ad find out their degree of work addiction which could be non-addicted, mildly addicted or workaholic.

The Bergen Work Addiction Scale identifies work addiction where all items are scored on the following scale: never, rarely, sometimes, often and always. Questions include:
- You think of how you can free up more time to work.
- You spend much more tie 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 deprioritize hobbies, leisure activities, and exercise because of your work.
- You work so much that it has negatively influenced your health.
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If you answer “always” or “often” on at least four of these questions, you may be a workaholic.

Source: MedicalNewsToday, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology


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