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Uninformed clinicians often prescribe work as a solution to emotional problems, rather than identify it as a cause. In the course of my research, writing, and national speaking engagements, I have been appalled by the inability of the psychotherapeutic community to recognize, understand, and treat workaholics. I have seen misdiagnosis after misdiagnosis because of this lack of awareness. I have also been shocked and dismayed at the pervasiveness of workaholism among practitioners and the attendant denial about their own out-of-control work habits. So for purposes of discussion, I often use the terms workaholism and work addiction interchangeably throughout this book. My definition of workaholism is as follows: an obsessive-compulsive disorder that manifests itself through self-imposed demands, an inability to regulate work habits, and an overindulgence in work to the exclusion of most other life activities. Workaholism is a form of escape from unresolved emotional issues, and the relief it provides has an addictive quality. In the clinical work that I do, workaholism is considered a “firefighter,” which means that overworking puts out emotional fires.12 The addictive nature of workaholism comes from the fact that workaholics are temporarily delivered from the red-alert condition through the distraction of working. But because the deeper issues are not addressed, constant working is necessary to keep the simmering flames from becoming wild fires.
Why Will This Book Be Helpful? This book provides an inside look at work addiction. It debunks the myths, refutes false claims, and sets the record straight, using the clinical, empirical, and case studies currently available.
Since the first edition of this book, new studies have emerged that provide deeper insights into the disorder and into the effects it has on the workaholic’s family. From California to the Carolinas, men and women recount their agonizing bouts with work addiction and the devastation left in its wake. It’s no accident that personal stories in San Diego resemble almost detail by detail the accounts of those in Atlanta. It’s no coincidence that patient after patient in Asheville, North Carolina, who grew up in workaholic homes describe hauntingly similar feelings that parallel those of children of workaholics in Peoria, St. Louis, and Houston. It’s not a fluke that partners of workaholics in New York describe, almost in minute detail, the exact experiences of partners in other parts of the country. These personal accounts, though not scientific in the quantitative sense, carry their own validity because they document the psychological experiences of individuals impacted by work addiction—the details of which provide an uncanny match in such high numbers that the emerging profiles cannot be attributed to chance alone. In this respect we do have a qualitative science of work addiction derived from the parallel themes and feelings that have been observed by clinicians in the field.
Many aspects of this book are groundbreaking. It is the first book on work addiction to show not only its devastating effects on workaholics but also its effect on those who live and work with workaholics—their partners, offspring, and business associates.
It contains new and innovative research not reported anywhere else on the outcomes of adults who carry the legacies of their workaholic parents and the problems this presents for their own adult relationships. Each chapter opens with a case study, and some chapters contain portrait tables, assembled from hundreds of case reports and a small body of clinical and empirical research. Each chapter concludes with a section called Suggestions for Clinicians, which provides practitioners the strategies and techniques they need to treat workaholics, their loved ones, and their employers and colleagues in the workplace. In writing this book, I have drawn on my own personal experiences, the research I’ve conducted at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for the past twenty years, my vast clinical practice with workaholics and their families, and correspondence from around the world. This information is presented in a readable way for the average person who is struggling with these issues in his or her personal life. Combining scientific knowledge and clinical implications with personal accounts, this book also is unique because it is the first informative source for clinicians to help them respond to the work-addiction epidemic that is sweeping this country. Written for psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, counselors, health educators, the clergy, medical practitioners, teachers, health-care administrators, corporate heads, and employee-assistance personnel, Chained to the Desk apprises professionals of the origin and scope of the problem, its pervasiveness within the family system, and how they can diagnose, intervene, and provide treatment for workaholics and their families.
Chained to the Desk is for all the people who are struggling with this insidious and misunderstood addiction. It aims to provide both counseling and consolation when they cannot find them elsewhere. It is my hope that people will be able to get the help they deserve from the medical establishment, from professionals in the addiction and treatment fields, and from clinicians in various capacities. It is also my hope that work addiction will be more openly accepted, diagnosed, understood, and treated as a serious condition. May it help you, the reader, find that place in your life where career success and personal and intimate fulfillment reside side by side—where you will know more about special times to pamper yourself, to just be with others, and to have idle moments with nothing to accomplish. You might not be ready to pack your bags and head for the woods, but you might carve your life more in the mold of Henry David Thoreau, who said, “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.”
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Excerpted from Bryan E. Robinson, Chained to the Desk: A Guide Book for Workaholics, Their Parents and Children, and the Clinicians Who Treat Them, 2nd ed. (New York University Press, 2007). Copyright 2007 New York University. Reproduced with permission.
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