The different kinds of addiction

 

When addiction is mentioned, the first things that may enter your mind would be drug addiction or alcohol addiction. However, addiction affects any aspect of an individual’s life. According to Google, addiction is defined as “the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance or activity.” Therefore, it is possible to be addicted to your job. Although not many are able to say that they are addicted to their jobs, it is possible. From loving your job way too much to being a workaholic, being addicted to your job can be just as dangerous as any other addictions. Obsessing over and prioritizing only your job is extremely dangerous not only for your physical and mental health but also your relationship with those around you.

 

Even the most successful

 

An individual that suffered from this kind of addiction would be Newshub journalist Patrick Gower who admitted to having had an unhealthy attachment and addiction to his previous job as a political editor. Gower stated that he became an extreme workaholic to the point where he started hating his job and dreaded going to work. Upon opening up about his addiction, Gower adds that he “worked with a psychologist to help me work through leaving the job,” and he later adds that it “really helped me and in the end, I got my goal: I didn’t end up hating the job, and I was still able to love it and leave without that hatred in my heart for it.”

 

Although it should be a goal for everyone to love their jobs and enjoy what they are doing, anything in excess can be extremely dangerous for one’s health. Therefore, it important to have a balance in your life.

 

“Newshub journalist Patrick Gower has admitted he had an unhealthy attachment to his previous job as a political editor, saying he was so addicted he was “starting to hate it”. In an emotional segment on Three’s The Project on Thursday night, Gower said he believed he was turning into a “workaholic”, as politics became the focal point of his life.

 

“I have struggled with an addiction – an addiction to politics and journalism. I know that people think I’m joking, but I really did,” he said. “Actually that’s why I left my last job: because actually my addiction to politics and to work – a workaholic sort of thing – was infecting my whole life. I felt that it had seeped into my whole life.”

 

“Even though I loved it, I could tell in my heart and in my mind that I was starting to hate it. I really didn’t want to hate it, so I had to break an addiction, basically.” Gower said he began going to see a psychologist in an effort to get in a good space to move into his current job, as Newshub National Correspondent.

 

“Dark corners were starting in my mind, and when I visualized going back to work I started to think that bad things would happen,” he said. “I actually worked with a psychologist to help me work through leaving the job, and she was really good, she’d done it before with other people.”

 

 

Read the rest of his story here.