An article I read this week outlined that workaholism is actually an addictive behaviour and like drugs, alcohol, sex, and shopping can be used as a distraction from hard to face life challenges or to self-medicate to dampen the impacts of a larger mental health issue (depression, anxiety etc.). In the past it was often thought that extreme work hours were the cause of many mental health problems – something the article turned upside down with the notion it was a salve to and not the cause of this mental distress.

Another article I read studied the impacts of treating a regular weekend like a vacation. This study looked at two groups – 1 which treated their weekend as they normally do with chores and obligations along side a group who were purposeful in carving out the weekend to be a vacation/staycation. The vacation group spent slightly more money than the other group but even accounting for this the positive impacts felt by the vacationing group, both mentally and physically were statistically significant. These vacation weekends could be as simple as strolling through a downtown area to window-shop or grabbing a cappuccino on the patio.

Note to self – STOP hiding behind work and START planning a vacation weekend!