Addictions Caused by Emotional Baggage

For many, being affected by addiction is closer to home than we’d like to admit.

• Have you been concerned about a spouse drinking too much?
• Has your child become hooked on drugs?
• Are there people in your work team who are absent, depressed or have accidents far too often?
• Are you someone who eats and treats yourself every time your mood changes?

Addictions show up in all kinds of different ways and have significant impacts in our work and our families.

Why do people have Addictive Behaviours?

Many develop addictions or addictive behaviours to avoid feeling pain. “At some base level all addicts experience great discomfort with being in their own skin” was a remark I heard years ago in an interview with an addictions psychologist. Another source talked about addictive substances being used as a tool to manage feelings the user felt powerless to handle on their own.

At the outset a behaviour may not be addictive but rather something you do to just relieve “the pressure.” It may escalate into a habit and before long the behaviour has become an addiction. These addictive behaviours range from somewhat healthy behaviours to very unhealthy and costly behaviours. Addictive behaviours include:

• Using alcohol, nicotine, marijuana or other drugs
• Eating disorders, caffeine, chocolate
• Internet, working too much,
• Gambling, shopping, Television
• Excessive sports - triathlons, marathons, golf or billiards
• Hobbies taken to the extreme

How do you distinguish between an addiction, a habit or a practice?

A practice is something you do because you love, or commit to because of the benefits it brings you. It is something you practice to become better at.

Habits can be good or bad. It becomes a problem when there is negative affect on your health and well-being.

With addiction there is a compulsive ‘need’ to do it. Nervous energy builds up and you can’t seem to stop doing it. There may be feelings of fear at the prospect of not doing it anymore.

If the latter is the case, you may want to seek help.

An idle habit like having a glass of wine at dinner can turn into an addiction when it becomes an every day need and then turns into drinking an entire bottle of wine. Habits become compulsive behaviour when used to subconsciously suppress emotional pain. Consciously we may not even know that we are suppressing something.

As a young adult I drank because all my friends did and it was a symbol of acceptance – or so I thought.  It didn't bother me at first but I began to suffer from terrible hangovers.  In my attempts to stop, I examined my reasons for drinking a little more closely. Being a bit shy and self conscious, a few drinks would loosen me up. I could converse much more easily, and had more fun. However, for me headaches and being completely dysfunctional the next day were more difficult to bear than the pain of starting a conversation. I cut way back on my consumption and consider myself fortunate to have learned this lesson early in life.

Beyond the impact on personal well being and the ability to function effectively, addictions are very costly in the workplace, and at home.

Read more about the Impact of Addictions at Home.

What are the impacts of Addictions at Work?

The cost of addictions in the workplace is high. Substance abuse and dependence can be the cause of absenteeism, accidents, injury, death, poor work quality and costly mistakes, reduced morale, productivity loss, staff turnover, co-worker disputes, property damage and theft. “An employee with substance abuse problems can cost between 25 - 50% of their salary through low productivity, sickness and accidents.” It is estimated approximately 6% of workers suffer from additions to drug and alcohol.

Most statistics on addiction are based on alcohol or drug abuse. These statistics do not take into account the significant health problems that come from eating disorders and food addictions. It is estimated that stress and depression costs the Canadian economy more than $50 billion a year and are responsible for a significant amount of absenteeism at work.

A study in 2010 by the Center for Addictions and Health states the following:

“The average short-term physical disability leave is about 33 days, and on average employers pay $9,000 for each case. The study found the most common reasons employees take physical disability leave include respiratory illness, muscular skeletal problems, injury and digestive disorders.

Meanwhile, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder are the mental illnesses that appear most in the Canadian workforce, with each case leading to an average 65-day leave and $18,000 bill.” As reported in the study by the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health.

It is often stress at work and at home that leads people to addictive behaviours in the first place. Our substance of choice is used to numb out emotions provoked by the stressful situations of life. Two major factors; unresolved emotional conditioning carried from childhood and reactions to the stressful situations play off each other in a dynamic process to provoke emotional reactions.

With a backlog of unresolved emotional baggage from childhood, employees are not able to withstand pressures in the work place, such as:

 shift work and long work hours
 poor job design, including boring or extremely demanding work
 unrealistic deadlines and performance targets, or inadequate resources
 lack of opportunity to participate in decision making
 inadequate training and supervisory support
 bullying, harassment or victimisation at work
 fear of job loss and uncertainty about the future
 family and social problems.

Part of the solution is to support employees in letting go of their “emotional baggage”. When we do this we are addressing the cause of the problem, rather than the symptom which is addiction.

If you would like to drop your emotional baggage and free yourself from existing or potential addiction, consider our Emotional Hot Button Removal Training. We have several options to choose from.

Lynne Brisdon
http://www.livinginvision.com/
http://www.workeasy4lifebalance.com/