How I Became a Longevity Addict

🔗 In this Nexus:

✅ My journey from a work addict to longevity addict

❓ Are you a workaholic?

❗ Workaholism prevalence, risk factors and health outcomes

🌟 7 ways to overcome your work addiction

Hi everyone, I am Egle Pavyde, a co-founder and CEO of LONGEVERSE. I consider myself a longevity enthusiast and I speak about longevity, however in the past year there were only a few occasions that I posted something on this topic. Therefore, I have decided to turn things around in 2024 and start a blog on longevity, healthspan, and more. I will do my best to share my thoughts on these topics that are buzzing in my head for a while now. Being a pharmacist and an ex-scientist in regenerative medicine, I will put my perspectives and mix it with the available scientific evidence on each topic.

A Workaholic at Heart

So let’s start from the roots how I became a longevity “addict” (as the article’s title tries to grab your attention). Year 2015-2020, I am as ambitious as I am now, just way less aware of what I am doing to myself with my lifestyle. On average I work 11-12 hours a day. I start work at 9-9:30 (because I can’t manage to wake up earlier), finish at ~18-19, pretend to live for 5-6 hours and then work again from around 22 until 1-2 AM, in some occasions – until 3-4 AM.

At that time, I couldn’t care less about my sleep routine, or regular physical activity or that weekends and holidays are dedicated for getting some rest and not for working a bit more. I even have a holiday video where I am caught on the backseat of the car on the way to Croatia editing a client’s proposal I need to send out. This was my absolute normal.

My Click

As in every good story, there is a key event, that changes everything for the main character. Looking back – I am very lucky, that for me it was not some kind of health-related event. For whatever reason, I have decided to buy a smart watch and got heavily involved in discussions with my colleagues what would be the best option. While Apple was (and still is) the answer for me for every gadget I have, my colleague has convinced me to look into a more health and wellness specialised product, so I ended up buying Garmin Fenix 6, which I use to date (not an ad, just experience sharing). I am forever grateful for that advice!

Track Your Data

For me seeing my daily stats was a game changer, the click that I needed. I have realised how poor my sleep quality was, how I need to move more and regularly, how other small changes can make a huge difference.

I also started noticing some patterns which might be obvious, but until you see the data, you skip to identify them and take action. This includes things like regularity of physical activity (oh, it’s been a week since I did something?), changes in mood and stress resilience, eating or doing sports too late in the evening and not sleeping well that night, or how your deep sleep is totally destroyed by just a couple glasses of wine.

As a positive side effect, I also started doing regular health checks, and do my general blood test every 6 months. All of this made me dig deeper, read more and that is how I got into the topic of longevity and taking care of my healthspan. I will share some top information resources that I use in my next articles.

What Does Science Say?

Are You a Work Addict?

Ok, let’s face it, I was a mild to moderate workaholic (or worse). Looking into the term, workaholism represents a compulsive and extreme need to work, characterised by an unrelenting drive to work hours on end, take on more work responsibility and prioritise work over different areas of life (1).

Sounds familiar? Let’s check! There is a Bergen Work Addiction Scale (2), a self-report tool that aligns with addiction theory and comprises seven items, one reflecting each of the seven addiction components including:

1. Mood modification – do you work in order to reduce feelings of guilt, anxiety, helplessness and depression?
2. Tolerance – do you spend much more time working than initially intended?
3. Salience – do you think of how you can free up more time to work?
4. Conflict – do you deprioritize hobbies, leisure activities, and exercise because of your work?
5. Withdrawal – do you become stressed if you are prohibited from working?
6. Problems – do you work so much that it has negatively influenced your health?
7. Relapse – have been told by others to cut down on work without listening to them?

The possible responses range from never (1) to always (5). Individuals who respond often (4) or always (5) to four out of seven questions are considered to be work addicts. Are you one of them?

Workaholism Prevalence, Risk Factors and Health Outcomes

So how big is the problem globally? A recent meta-analysis that included a total of 53 studies, with 71,625 participants from 23 countries concluded that the prevalence of workaholism was 14.1% (3). This means 14 out of 100, or 1-2 out of 10 workers are workaholics. So if you are one, at least you are not alone. Well, in this case, this doesn’t help you anyhow.

The results of another meta-analysis have indicated that 3 main personality risk factors of work addiction are (4):

• Perfectionism
• Global and performance-based self-esteem
• Negative affect

The problem of workaholism and burn-out is globally recognised by the World Health Organization (5). According to WHO, a negative working environment may lead to physical and mental health problems, harmful use of substances or alcohol, absenteeism, and lost productivity. Couple of recent studies have concluded that work addiction was associated with (6,7):

• Health problems related to stress
• Greater depression
• Poor quality of sleep
• Poorer quality of life

Why knowing all of this is important? Because only when you identify the problem and understand it’s seriousness, you can start dealing with it. My strongest belief related to the whole idea of longevity and healthspan is:

If you don’t take care of your health and wellness basics first, no longevity supplements or procedures will help.

Or at least not to the level they should.

7 Ways to Overcome Your Work Addiction

Ok, if you are one of the workaholics, you work hard and probably not too smart. How to get out of this routine? According to Gary Trosclair, psychotherapist and Jungian psychoanalyst there are 7 ways to better manage your working habits (8):

1. Perform a self-assessment. Try self-diagnostic tools (like the one in this article) to reflect on your work habits. Talk with your close ones about your work patterns and openly seek their support.
2. Understand your motivations. Recognize the reasons behind your work ethic. This could be striving for perfection, seeking higher self-esteem, or avoiding other aspects of life. Understanding these will help towards change.
3. Redefine your priorities. What truly matters to you? Career, personal well-being, relationships, etc.? Document priorities and let them be a daily reminder.
4. Set your boundaries. Establish clear limits on your work hours, including how much time you spend working on weekends or holidays.
5. Choose healthy alternatives. Pay attention to physical signs of stress and counter them with activities like exercise. Rest and leisure are key to boosting your overall productivity.
6. Plan post-work activities. Create plans for your time after work. This helps setting firm boundaries to conclude your workday.
7. Seek professional help. If nothing else helps – seek for professional guidance on how to cope with you workaholism.

What helped me personally were continuous comments from family and friends on my working habits, the fact that I started tracking my health data and implementing relevant changes to my behaviour, and eventually changing extensive working hours to either physical or social activities. I am not completely there yet, and I don’t think I will ever be (I still read my emails 24/7, whenever I am awake), but at least the overall boundaries and self-awareness are in place.

Hope you enjoyed the read. In my next Nexus Newsletter I will talk about the basics of longevity and where to start a journey to prolonging your healthspan. Make sure to subscribe and share your thoughts and perspectives!