2104: Are You Addicted To Work? By Dr. Jenny Brockis on Work Addiction

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[00:01:00] By Dr. Jenny Brockis of drjennybrockus.com Behavioral addiction can happen to anyone. While it's great to love what you do, like anything else, love it, but keep it in balance with the rest of your life. The nature of addiction revolves around how the brain perceives pleasure. The word addiction comes from the Latin meaning enslaved by. And while the word addict tends to conjure up the image of someone who is addicted to narcotics, alcohol, or gambling,

[00:01:30] addictive behavior develops from how the brain registers pleasure. And let's face it, if a particular behavior makes us feel good, that extra dose of dopamine experienced through the brain's reward circuitry drives us to seek to experience it all over again. So we start to crave that chocolate, cigarette, or playing another session of World of Warcraft.

[00:01:50] From a brainy perspective, the development of addiction from simple pleasure is thought to result from the interaction of dopamine with another neurotransmitter, glutamate, that leads to the development of compulsion, seeking out that reward even when we know deep down that what we're doing isn't healthy.

[00:02:06] While we've had the term workaholic, meaning being compulsively addicted to working excessively hard and long hours, for a while, many more of us are now at risk for work addiction because of the change in how we work, coupled with our increasing integration with technology, which is specifically designed to grab our attention and is potentially addictive in its own right. Look around at any public space, cafe, train, or pavement, and it appears everyone is deeply engrossed with their smartphone.

[00:02:36] While going down in a lift to exit a hotel last week, I noticed how every additional passenger was either already engaged on their phone as they entered the lift, or quickly started scrolling down their screen during that short passage of time to the ground floor. According to Adam Alter, author of Irresistible, behavioral addiction comprises six ingredients.

[00:02:57] 1. Compelling goals just out of reach. The element of, so close, I'll just keep going for a little bit longer to try and reach my goal. 2. Irresistible and unpredictable positive feedback. The anticipation and pure pleasure of positive reward stoking our internal motivation. 3. A sense of incremental progress and improvement. This is working well, so let's keep going.

[00:03:24] 4. A gradual increase in the level of challenge of tasks over time. I'm learning so much and getting far better at this. 5. Unresolved tensions that require resolution. I need to keep working on this to get rid of these glitches getting in the way of my success. 6. Strong social connections. It feels so great having the support of others. All of these are highly motivating to make us want to strive harder to reach our goals, which is fine.

[00:03:53] What's not so fine is when the motivation becomes so compelling that we lose sight of how much is enough and when to stop. 7. When out of balance, it's not only us that suffers. Our relationships suffer too. 8. At a personal level, because we're never around. Or when we are, we're tired, grumpy, and not much fun to be with.

[00:04:12] 9. And at work, where interpersonal relationships can become strained if your monofocus means a raised level of expectation of the contribution of others requires them to work to a level that wasn't agreed to, causing them to experience increased stress and overwhelm. 9. What matters is recognizing if you're working too hard in an obsessive way that is taking a toll on your health, well-being, and performance.

[00:04:36] 9. Ironically, working too hard is counterproductive to obtaining our goals because it is the fast track to exhaustion, burnout, and an increased risk of mental illness. 10. Countering our work addiction is about putting in place those boundaries to enable us to lead a sustainable, rewarding, and enjoyable life at work, home, and play.

[00:04:56] 10. This is where increasing your level of brain fitness comes into play by ensuring you have what Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, describes as cornerstone habits in place. 10. There are four basic cornerstone habits to cultivate. 11. The first is get enough sleep each night.

[00:05:13] 11. Sleep deprivation comes with the terrible cognitive cost of poor attention, a slower speed of processing, reduced learning and memory capacity, more mistakes, poorer decision-making, and reduced analytical or creative thinking. It's about making the decision that no matter what, you ensure you get 7 to 9 hours of good, quality, uninterrupted sleep. 12. A second cornerstone habit is to exercise every day.

[00:05:39] 13. Exercise primes the brain for better performance with improved memory and cognition, helps to burn off stress hormones, and stimulates the release of our feel-good hormones, elevating mood and confidence. It's far easier to work efficiently with a clear head. 14. A third cornerstone is to place boundaries on your technology. 14. Hyperconnectivity is stressing out our brain and is unsustainable.

[00:06:03] 15. This is where agreed protocols can be put in place, by switching the phone to silent and turning off other technology to provide focused periods of uninterrupted work so more gets achieved in a shorter period of time. 15. This works well in meetings by keeping everyone present, present to what the meeting has set out to achieve and get there more quickly. 16. At home, this may take the form of agreement that no one brings technology to the dinner table, and an agreed time curfew for all technology in the evening.

[00:06:32] 17. And the fourth cornerstone is the habit of taking regular time out from work, scheduling in a long weekend, short break, or holiday every three months or so to break the cycle of feeling indispensable to the cause. 17. This helps to keep things in perspective, cultivates an interest in other things beyond work, and provides a much-needed cognitive break to refresh and re-energize.

[00:06:56] 17. You just listened to the post titled, Are You Addicted to Work? by Dr. Jenny Brockis of drjennybrockes.com. 17. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.

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[00:07:54] Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. And thank you to Dr. Brockis, who as a keynote speaker has presented to and worked with thousands of people to empower them to cultivate their own thriving mind. What gets her out of bed in the morning is the opportunity to impact someone else's world, seeing that spark of insight in their eyes when they see what they can do for themselves.

[00:08:21] As a voracious reader and prolific writer, she continues to indulge her curiosity and has just published her fourth book called Thriving Mind, How to Cultivate a Good Life. And as a board-certified lifestyle medicine physician and best-selling author, her vision is to enable everyone to be a happy, thriving human. Her site is definitely worth checking out. She's got so much to offer there. So come by drjennybrockis.com to learn a lot more.

[00:08:48] That's drjennybrockis, B-R-O-C-K-I-S dot com. And that's it for today. I thank you so much for being here with me and being a subscriber. And I hope to see you back here tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.