What is workaholism? Understanding the drive to work beyond exhaustion

A 37-year-old tells me, “I love my work; there are days when I can work 17 or 18 hours a day. Everything, whether its family, friends or intimate relationships, exists in the background. But I don’t know how to relax and there are days where I feel so exhausted and burnt out and yet can’t stop working.”

What the client is referring to is workaholism. In some areas of psychological literature, another term that that is used to describe these patterns is ergomania, which especially focusses on the compulsive nature of work and the maladaptive reliance on it. While the concept of workaholism has been around for a long time, there is absence of one clear definition of it. The term is attributed to psychologist Wayne E. Oates who talked about it in 1971. He defined workaholic as “the compulsion or uncontrollable need to work incessantly”. In his work, he talked about how an urge or craving for working relentlessly leads to an interference and disruption in the individual’s health, overall functioning and interpersonal relationships.

I remember in first few months of my practice in 2005, I had male clients show up with patterns reflecting workaholism. Now I see an equal number of men and women who reach out for this problem. While it’s not a formal clinical diagnosis, it does have an impact on people’s quality of life and vitality. Clients often seek therapy after loved ones raise concerns about their relationship with work, or when they develop sleep, gastro-intestinal problems, anxiety, persistent fatigue and compulsive work-related thoughts. Others present later in life, particularly as they approach retirement, worrying about how they will cope without work. Our culture reinforces and rewards men and women who are overly engaged with work, and this comes in the way of people reaching out in therapy or identifying how it’s an ineffective way of coping.

When working with clients in therapy, I look at a definition of workaholism which comes from this 2024 research paper titled “Workaholism: Taking stock and looking forward” published by Toon W. Taris and Jan Je Jonge in Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behaviour.

The paper, based on 50 years of research, defines workaholism as involving high motivation (being driven to work due to internal pressures) as well as high-effort expenditure (having persistent thoughts about work when not working and working beyond what can reasonably be expected). This definition helps clients understand and become aware of what drives their behaviour through a perspective which is less labelling.

From a therapeutic perspective, my understanding is that individuals with a vulnerability to workaholism may use an increased focus on work as a defensive strategy when confronted with difficulties in their personal lives. It’s very easy to fall for the illusion that work is a salve that is protecting them. They forget that it’s been used as defense mechanism to escape the overwhelm that comes from their personal life. Deeply investing time and energy in work can, at times, become a way of entrenching life around productivity, serving to numb us from grief or suffering we may be caught up in.

When I see clients falling for these patterns, I ask them to pause and check what purpose and meaning their work offers them. Often, I hear clients tell me how while they may feel not in control or face unpredictability in other areas, work becomes a vital anchor and offers them control, competence and validation. Learning to stay with this insight and help clients process the full range of their feelings creates the necessary space to address workaholic behaviour. The lens that helps is to recognise how to repurpose life where they make room for leisure, open their life to relationships, and develop interests in other areas. The idea is to not abandon work but to build a life where there is space for work and to also build an identity that goes beyond it. This process involves examining the beliefs and unwritten scripts that guide our workaholism and a readiness to reimagine what it means to live.

When I find myself also leaning towards workaholic behaviour, I wonder what I am trying to anesthetise from and sometimes the answer lies in the question itself.

Sonali Gupta is a Mumbai-based psychotherapist and author.