9 Work Addiction Recovery Tips To Help You Avoid Burnout

published – Sept 26th 2022

For some people, recovering from an addiction will be one of the hardest things they will ever do in their lifetime. It is something that requires strong action as well as a lot of ongoing maintenance in order to prevent relapses.

Think about this. You’re not just cutting off an addiction, you’re also making positive changes in your life and also developing yourself personally. To be honest, there are worse things to be addicted to than working. However, you should really get help if it starts to become a problem to the detriment of everything else in your life.

Here are a few pieces of advice that will hopefully allow you to keep your hands on the steering wheel and ultimately help you learn how to overcome work addiction.

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1. Get professional care & work addiction treatment

It’s very much a worn-out cliche at this point, but stopping an addiction usually begins with denial and then admitting you have a problem. The next step should be to research the addiction recovery resources and services that are available to you. Try to seek professional help as soon as possible whether this is through:

a counsellor
rehabilitation centre
group sessions
receiving treatment for work addiction

There are even specialists you can talk to if you want to begin getting help with work addiction specifically. You can hire individuals like this for a reasonable price on freelance platforms like Fiverr.

2. Avoid external obstacles in your recovery

People who are addicts may have certain individuals in their lives who will sabotage them (perhaps unintentionally) when in the middle of recovery. For instance, one of the negative effects might be your clients constantly offering you jobs to do.

Another example might be an alcoholic having drinking buddies who will bring out their worst behaviour through peer pressure. On top of this, the drinker might also have a favoured drinking establishment that the individual will want to actively avoid visiting if they want to get better.

On top of this, addiction can cause major rifts in families and friend groups so figure out early on who will help or hinder you. You shouldn’t worry too much as there are online courses you can take in order to break an addiction. This company offers ebooks, guided meditation and live Q&A sessions.

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3. Find out the long-term causes of work addiction

Sometimes the key to recovery is understanding what drove you to addiction in the first place. It can be so much easier if you know what the root of the problem is as this can often reward you with the solution too. Life is hard so the causes of work addiction can be almost anything.

Some people become addicts in order to deal with feelings of loneliness or anxiety. Others prioritise their careers as a distraction to avoid dealing with other parts of their lives. You may even have inherited an addiction from your family whether this is through nature or nurture (or a mixture of both).

4. Take your work addiction recovery step by step

Similar to the cycle of addiction, recovery also typically comes in stages. These stages can differ depending on what particular methodology you are following but it often boils down to organizing and then taking action.

Breaking the process down into smaller bitesize chunks can simplify things a lot if you want to understand how to break work addiction. Work addiction recovery can be a long and complicated journey, to say the least.

According to experts, as long as you are working at it consistently, you can break an addiction in as little as three weeks. However, the more stubborn and ingrained an addiction is, the longer it will take to vanquish.

5. Set goals & recognize your achievements

People in sobriety can help themselves out by setting goals along with a target date or deadline to go with each goal. Business-minded people are used to aiming for goals so this may all sound familiar to you.

Correspondingly, you can keep yourself motivated by celebrating your milestones (however small or insignificant you might initially believe they are). Remember that progress is still progress.

6. Examine your previous & current behavior

So much of the recovery process takes place in one’s own mind. Sadly, many find themselves going through the recovery process more than once. If you want to increase your chances of success then try to review the current symptoms and analyze what went wrong with your previous recovery attempts.

It’s natural for an addict to feel desperate urges or cravings. There are certain factors that will trigger you into a relapse. You can combat this by spotting what these triggers are before they have a chance to come into effect again.

7. Come to terms with your past

Nobody can travel back in time so it’s sometimes best just to let go of what you can’t control. Addict or not, nobody can change their past mistakes so you shouldn’t beat yourself up or overthink it when it comes to viewing the way things used to be for you. The psychology of work addiction is a big factor so don’t let your ghosts haunt you as you move forward.

8. Change your environment

Despite what some sceptics say, a change of scenery can make a world of difference. Familiar surroundings (such as a home office where you perhaps spent a lot of time) can often be bad reminders of previous negative behaviour. A fresh start can give you a leg up so think carefully about the locations where you want to spend most of your time.

9. Exercise on a regular basis

Recovery simply doesn’t end the second you stop using whatever it is you are addicted to. You also need to change your daily habits so that you can then enter into a new and healthier lifestyle.

It’s easy to think about how good your addiction can make you feel in the moment. Although, you should instead examine the benefits of not being addicted and also the perks of sobriety in general. Exercise is great for those in recovery and for people suffering from work addiction withdrawal in particular as it can:

provide purpose
boost physical fitness
help develop self-discipline

It almost acts as a replacement for your addiction due to endorphins released from physical exertion. Additionally, it’s a good idea to take in a healthy and balanced diet.

centre 9 Work Addiction Recovery Tips To Help You Avoid Burnout earn work jobs make money tricks care exercise benefits group help discipline support session treatment lifestyle habits hints environment diet behavior change action courses counselor goals rehab rehabilitation progress process specialist success meditation control cause surroundings solution purpose thoughts feelings ambition stages relapse — photo by soulis from pixabay

Can work be an addiction? Having career ambitions and working hard towards those objectives aren’t negative habits per se. Although, it can be a major issue if you are hurting yourself and others around you.

The good news is that statistically 3 out of 4 people eventually recover from addiction so the odds are in your favour. However, there are many moving parts at play when it comes to figuring out how to deal with work addiction and how best to go about your own recovery.

So much of this involves being able to control your own thoughts and feeling. There are also outside forces that you will need to assess such as where you are spending your time and which individuals you choose to let into your life.

Once you have a grasp of the tools that will offer you support, you can then see what you are doing well and also where there is room for improvement. There are clearly going to be individuals who will slip into relapses (multiple times in some cases).

The biggest problem might actually be your chosen occupation especially if it’s a job you’re not happy doing. If this is the case then you should consider finding other work. Tools like jobscan can help you in your job hunt as this company can offer you job interview tips as well as optimize your resume for you.

Sometimes it’s not possible for certain individuals to make a full recovery from addiction. It can’t be cured completely for some addicts. However, it can still be managed and controlled if you are willing to make the effort.

I recommend logging your working hours each day so that you have a record of how much work you are doing per week or month. You can then examine this data to objectively see if your workload is reasonable or not.

Do you personally believe that you have a work addiction problem? Which one of these tips do you think would be most effective and why? Please don’t forget to share this with your friends and like it on social media. You can subscribe to our newsletter and comment below too. Thanks for reading!