We love to see our clients beat addiction and thrive in sobriety once they’ve completed residential or intensive outpatient treatment with us. We also know that a big part of a healthy, long-lasting recovery is the ability to foster a work-life balance. 

It can be difficult to find good work–work that you enjoy and that supports your needs–and it can be frightening to think of leaving a stable job even if it’s causing you undue stress. But doing so might be essential to your sobriety.  

When Work Leads to Relapse

Workplace triggers can cause a relapse if they occur frequently enough over a sustained period. Triggers typically snowball when you’re fighting for your sobriety in a restrictive, toxic, dangerous, highly competitive, or stress-inducing environment. A stressful work environment does the following:

• Makes you feel like it’s impossible to change your life, your circumstances, or your level of frustration or unhappiness
• Penalizes you for being honest or transparent 
• Discourages you from asking for help with tasks that require it 
• Actively punishes you in some way for practicing self-care
• Pushes you to bend rules or ignore personal boundaries 

Working in an environment with any of the above characteristics makes it difficult to keep up with your relapse prevention practices. If you’re regularly feeling stressed at or about work, take some time to examine what is causing that stress. 

Specific Red Flags in the Workplace

Maybe the easiest way to evaluate your workplace stress is to use the acronym HALT. Does your job regularly leave you feeling Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and/or Tired?

These physical and emotional states are precursors to relapse. Be honest in assessing if your job stress is threatening your ability to stay substance-free. If you’re having strong feelings of anxiety and depression every Sunday evening or just before a shift starts, listen to your gut and start to document your body’s reaction to your job.

Next, you can analyze the social aspects of your work. Do you get along with your coworkers? Do you support each other with professionalism and respect? The strength of workplace bonds between coworkers can have positive effects on sobriety. Evaluate your relationships with your coworkers. Is the problem caused by one or two people, or is the problem systemic, a symptom of a toxic workplace?   

It’s also helpful to be aware that many people go through phases of heightened workplace stress and apathy. These phases may make you feel like the job isn’t a good fit. You can better differentiate between a phase and complete incompatibility if you love your job but dislike a specific coworker or manager–or if you’ve only felt this way for a few days or weeks. If you have no desire to keep your job, experience intense feelings of jealousy or resentment while at work, or feel overwhelmingly unfulfilled, it may be time to look for another job.  

Join Continuing Care For Substance Abuse in Port Matilda, Pennsylvania 

If you or someone you love has recently completed treatment for a substance use disorder (SUD) and feel more support is needed, contact us as soon as possible. Our many programs are designed to help our clients prevent relapse, and our therapists can help you determine how to address work stress. We provide clients with recovery education, virtual telehealth care, and tips on how to maintain proper self-care in recovery. We also offer career opportunities for anyone interested in working with us.