The Treatment of Workaholism With Meditation Awareness Training: A Case Study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The prevalence of workaholism in Western populations is approximately 10%, although estimates vary considerably according to how “workaholism” is defined. There is growing consensus that workaholism is a bona fide behavioral addiction that exists at the extreme end of the work-engagement continuum and causes similar negative consequences to other behavioral addictions such as salience, conflict, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, and mood modification. Other more specific consequences include burnout, work compulsion, work–family conflict, impaired productivity, asociality, and psychological/somatic illness. Recent decades have witnessed a marked increase in research investigating the etiology, typology, symptoms, prevalence, and correlates of workaholism. However, despite increasing prevalence rates for workaholism, there is a paucity of workaholism treatment studies. Indeed, guidelines for the treatment of workaholism tend to be based on either theoretical proposals or anecdotal reports elicited during clinical practice. Thus, there is a need to establish dedicated and effective treatments for workaholism. A novel broad-application interventional approach receiving increasing attention by occupational and healthcare stakeholders is that of third-wave cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs). Third-wave CBTs integrate aspects of Eastern philosophy and typically employ a meditation-based recovery model. A primary treatment mechanism of these techniques involves the regulation of psychological and autonomic arousal by increasing perceptual distance from faulty thoughts and mental urges. A “meditative anchor,” such as observing the breath, is typically used to aid concentration and to help maintain an open-awareness of present-moment sensory and cognitive–