Prolific British Writer Reveals He Has Been Diagnosed As A Workaholic & Says The Addiction Is “No Different From Drink, Drugs Or Sex”

deadline.com:

Prolific British screenwriter and playwright James Graham has revealed he has been diagnosed as a workaholic and described the addiction as “no different really from drink, drugs or sex.” Graham appeared on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs yesterday and opened up about the problem, which he said led him to seek help from family and friends and eventually attend Workaholics Anonymous meetings. “I knew something wasn’t quite right in my late 20s,” said the Sherwood and Brexit: The Uncivil War writer. “I would go into periods where I would be far too isolated or would self-sabotage relationships as soon as they became intimate and important.

I was working around the clock continually and not looking after myself.” He added: “The moment I realized I had a problem was when I had started to lie to family and friends about stupid things like I’d say I got up at 8 a.m.

when actually I had woken up at 5. Or I realized I wouldn’t have eaten for a day.” Graham said he took himself to meetings during a winter when he was speaking with “a woman who probably saved me” and she suddenly said: “Why aren’t you wearing a coat?” “It was winter and cold outside and I had a flimsy paper thing on as I hadn’t had time to go out and buy a winter coat,” he added. “I brushed it aside and was getting frustrated with her but to her that was symptomatic of an inability to look after myself.

I took that on the chin and went to a group.” Graham described the problem as “not an actual sickness” but said it is an addiction “no different really from drink, drugs or sex,” although it is not taken as seriously. “I realized [in meetings] that it is a pattern of behavior that is slowly killing you.