The Intersection of Ambition and Workaholism.
In my therapy practice, I’ve noticed a strong recurring theme about the intersection of ambition and workaholism, particularly those of us women with histories of relational trauma.
These women find themselves in a complex bind: their relentless drive for professional, financial, and academic success serves as a means to scale the socioeconomic ladder, get themselves out of challenging early beginnings, and earn some security in the world that may have been lacking in their childhoods.
But this is a double edged sword for so many of us: while our determination to scale and overcome and achieve is admirable, it’s also important to be mindful about when these efforts and our ambition may spiral into workaholism – a pattern that can create harmful impacts in their adult life even as it creates “positive” impacts in other ways.
Let’s break this down more.
The Connection Between Work Addiction and Developmental Trauma.
A growing body of research supports the connection between developmental trauma and subsequent addictive behaviors.
Numerous studies reveal that early traumatic experiences can lead to significant alterations in brain chemistry and function, particularly in areas responsible for stress management, reward processing, and impulse control.
To put it plainly, these neurological changes can create a fertile ground for addictive behaviors to take root.
Like a garden with really well-tilled soil.
That’s our brain basically well-prepped for addictive behaviors to take place when we come from developmental trauma backgrounds.
So what can this look like?
Those of us who come from relational trauma histories may have an altered stress response system, making us more likely to engage in compulsive work habits as a means to manage feelings of anxiety or stress.
Our work environments can also unconsciously provide a structured, predictable space that contrasts sharply with the chaos we might have experienced in our formative years.
This sense of control and predictability, coupled with the dopamine-driven rewards of accomplishment, can be particularly compelling for those of us with unresolved trauma.
Furthermore, the compulsive pursuit of work can serve as a distraction, helping us avoid confronting painful emotions or memories linked to our trauma.
The Work Addiction Cycle
But, of course, this avoidance, while providing temporary relief, can perpetuate a cycle of work addiction. This is because the underlying emotional distress remains unaddressed.
Expanding on this, it’s important to consider how the strong, built-in reinforcement mechanisms within work environments can exacerbate work addiction.
Recognition, promotions, and financial incentives can all serve as powerful motivators that reinforce compulsive working patterns. Especially when and if our relational trauma backgrounds included an element of financial scarcity, too.
Between being neurologically primed for addictive behavior, plus having such strong behavioral reinforcements, a sense of predictability and security, and receiving distress avoidance as byproducts of working, is it any wonder why working hard can easily morph into a more compulsive form of workaholism for those of us from relational trauma backgrounds?
But how do we tell the difference?
How do we know when overworking is becoming workaholism?
