Treat OCD and Anxiety as a Workaholic

Working too much is a serious problem. Often, people who work too much also suffer from OCD or related anxiety disorders. If you work too much and suffer from an anxiety disorder, there are several things you can do to lead a more balanced life. You can start by seeing your doctor and going to therapy. Lifestyle changes, such as adopting stress-relieving techniques, making work boundaries, and managing your anxiety or OCD, are also important.

Steps

Managing Your Anxiety Disorder

1. Make a self-care plan. To improve your relationship with work and alleviate anxiety or OCD symptoms, you can develop a self-care plan that covers every area of your life. If you are obsessed with working, the rest of your life may be neglected. A self-care plan helps you balance your life and pay attention to each part of your life.
   • Your self-care plan can focus on work, relationships, leisure time, the self, and your spiritual life. By breaking down your life into concrete categories, you can see where you are lacking and what needs improvement.
   • For example, you may have 90% of your energy into your work. Your self-care plan allows you to schedule an hour each evening for leisure, where you watch television, an hour of exercise to focus on yourself, and two hours to spend with your family. On the weekends, you spend Saturday with your family and friends, and Sunday you focus on yourself.
   • Start working on balancing your life. All of your energy now is focused on work. You should think about what’s important to you, like family and friend relationships or improving your leisure time. Put more effort into those areas of your life and less into work.
   • Becoming more balanced in your life, improving relationships, and working on yourself can help reduce stress that leads to anxiety and OCD.
2. Get enough sleep. Many people who work all of the time don’t sleep enough because they are too busy working. This can worsen anxiety and OCD symptoms, making you feel even worse. Worsening anxiety and OCD symptoms may also affect your work quality. To help with this, strive to get into Sleep-Better
   • Most people need seven to nine hours of sleep each night.
   • You should go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. This helps you adopt healthy sleeping habits.
3. Take stress-relief breaks during the day. If you are spending all of your time focusing on work, your stress levels may be extremely high. This can increase your anxiety or OCD symptoms. To help alleviate your anxiety, take small breaks from work throughout the day to relieve stress.
   • For example, take a 10 minute walk around the building or block. Exercise can help boost your mood and improve your anxiety.
   • Go to lunch with coworkers or friends. Spending time connecting with people can help reduce anxiety and OCD symptoms.
4. Engage in stress-relief techniques. When your anxiety or OCD symptoms get too bad because you are not working, you may need to use stress-relieving techniques to alleviate the symptoms. At first, you may even experience anxiety attacks as you fight compulsions or obsessive thoughts about working.
   • Try Do-Breathing-Exercises to help relieve anxiety. Whenever you feel overwhelmed by anxiety or OCD symptoms when you aren’t working, take a deep breath through your nose as you count to five. Hold it for a count of five, then exhale through your mouth for a count of five.
   • Regular exercise is a great way to treat anxiety and OCD symptoms. A thirty minute walk each day can reduce your symptoms. Try getting active each day, or try stress-relieving exercises such as yoga or tai chi.
5. Meditate. One good way to learn how to calm down and let go of work is to meditate. Meditation helps you learn how to clear your mind so you can reduce stress. Mediation is also a good treatment for anxiety and OCD. Mediation helps you get rid of negative thoughts, stress, guilt, and anxiety.
   • Meditation may also help you be able to control compulsions and obsessive thoughts.
   • Guided meditation is a good starting place if you’ve never meditated before. Guided meditation walks you through the process, so you are coached to relaxation and towards your mental goals.
6. Develop hobbies. When you work too much, you may begin to lose yourself and forget to focus on anything that is enjoyable or enriching in your life. To help work on your sense of self, revisit old hobbies or develop new interests that have nothing to do with work.
   • At first, you may have to tell yourself that spending time not working is okay. Remind yourself, “Spending time engaging in hobbies helps me be a healthier, happier person. I have completed my work and I deserve something good.”

Seeking Medical Treatment

1. See your doctor for a diagnosis and to begin treatment. To get proper treatment for your anxiety disorder or OCD, you need to get a proper diagnosis for both conditions. Know-if-You-Have-Anxiety and Recognize-Obsessive-Compulsive-Personality-Disorder are serious mental illnesses that should be treated by a doctor or a therapist. If you work too much and you also suffer from Overcome-Your-Anxiety-Disorder or Manage-OCD, then your symptoms may be even more pronounced. However, with proper treatment, you can alleviate your symptoms and live a healthier life.
   • Your doctor may suggest medication to treat the anxiety and OCD symptoms.
   • Psychotherapy is also a common treatment for anxiety disorders. Your doctor will probably refer you to a Find-a-Psychiatrist or Find-a-Good-Psychologist who can provide therapy to address your anxiety disorder, OCD, and addiction-like behaviors.
   • To find a therapist, start by asking your doctor for a referral. You can also search online for therapists in your area who specialize in your disorder. When you search online, you can also read reviews and patient experiences with the therapist.
2. Undergo cognitive behavioral therapy. One effective treatment for anxiety and OCD is cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on changing negative thought patterns into healthier ones. This can also help change your attitude about work, along with helping you cope with obsessive and anxious thoughts and compulsions.
   • You may have unhealthy or untrue beliefs about work. A therapist can help you work through these beliefs and modify them into healthier, more productive beliefs.
   • For example, if you believe you will lose your job if you don’t work all the time, your therapist can use CBT to help you change that thought to something like, “I can work hard for this many hours each week and keep my job.”
3. Go to family therapy. Family therapy may be needed if working too much and having anxiety has negatively affected your family relationships. During family relationships, a therapist can help you learn how to interact with your family and make them a priority in your life.
   • Your therapist can also help you figure out activities that you and your family can do together. These activities can strengthen your relationship and help you alter your attention away from work and onto leisure activity and relationships.
   • You and your family can use therapy to learn how to communicate with each other. You may also be able to be truthful about ways your behavior has hurt each other. For example, your partner may say, "I feel hurt that we never take any vacations because you are always working." You might say, "I am frustrated because you get angry when I check my work e-mail in the evenings."

Establishing Work-Related Boundaries

1. Leave work at work. When you leave work, you should do just that - leave work behind. Try not to take work home with you. Focusing on work at home can increase your anxiety and OCD symptoms while feeding your need to work. Try to make a clear boundary between work time and time not at work.
   • For example, you can decide not to check your email or answer your phone when you’re at home.
   • Leave all paperwork and projects at work. Don’t bring them home with you.
   • If you must answer emails or work on paperwork at night, set aside a designated half an hour or hour to do just that. This helps keep your work time separate from your home time. It also keeps you from doing work all night.
2. Talk to your boss about work boundaries. If working too much is triggering your anxiety or OCD, then you may want to talk to your boss about setting boundaries. You should tell our boss that you need to make clear boundaries about when you work and when you won’t work. This may include what you will and won’t do when you’re off the clock.
   • If you are an hourly worker, you may tell your boss that you will only work during your required hours. If your boss wants you to work outside of those hours, you may negotiate overtime or say no.
   • If you are salaried, you may set a limit on the amount of hours you will work and discuss this with your boss.
   • You may want to say, “I have been working too much and spreading myself too thin. I would like to set some boundaries in relation to the hours I work.”
3. Change your thoughts about work. If you have anxiety and OCD, you may be plagued by inaccurate thoughts or obsessions. You may believe if you don’t work all the time you will lose your job. You may have the compulsion to work constantly and get edgy or irritated if you are unable to work. To help treat your anxiety and OCD symptoms, work on changing your thoughts about work.
   • Start by telling yourself that being away from work doesn’t make you lazy or unproductive. Repeat to yourself, “I do not have to work every hour of every day. I can take time to focus on myself and relationships.”
   • Face your obsessive or anxious thoughts. When you start to feel anxious because you aren’t working, tell yourself, “Nothing bad will happen if I am not working. These are just my anxieties. I deserve to take a break from work.”
4. Prioritize your to-do list. Due to your anxiety, you may have a long to-do list with things you must get done. Maybe you have obsessive thoughts about what will happen if you don’t complete everything, or you have the compulsion to keep working until you have completed everything on the list. This is not healthy and just feeds anxiety and stress. Instead, start prioritizing the things you have to do and limiting your to-do list.
   • For example, honestly assess everything on your list. What are things that have to get done today? What things have to be done by the end of the week? What things have no time limit on them? You may have to finish paperwork for work by the end of the day, complete a project by the end of the week, but making fliers can be done when you get to them.
   • Limit your tasks to around five per day. If you have to add something to your task list for that day, you need to remove one task. Keep yourself limited so you don’t overextend yourself.

References

See also

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