How to deal with addiction in the workplace

Addiction can be a touchy subject. There is so much stigma involved and often little education, which makes it even harder to address.

Catherine Stokoe, lead therapist at Hope in Health, discussed workplace addiction with HR Leader.

“Are addictions rife in our society? Absolutely. We’re not taught in our upbringing, anywhere in our culture, in our society, in our schooling, education, and generally not in parenting, how to regulate ourselves,” said Ms Stokoe.

“We’re not taught how to deal with difficult situations; we’re not taught about boundaries, how to keep ourselves safe. So, people feel isolated in their lives, and our culture and substances or addictive behaviour is a really one very fast way to soothe a dysregulated nervous system.”

If a colleague is struggling with addiction, there are ways you can support them and help raise them up.

“Educate, get educated themselves on what addiction is and how it looks; people can be very highly functioning and still be in addiction. In fact, work can be an addiction. So, I think employers need to get educated around what addiction is, how it affects their employees, how it can affect a team,” Ms Stokoe explained.

“It can really bring teams undone. So, it’s important to look for the signs; it’s important to have a culture in the company or the organisation that is supportive of mental health and is proactive in reducing the stigma around mental health issues.”

Support can come in many forms. External counsellors can be brought in, or just simply being there, listening, and providing a safe space can work wonders.

Ms Stokoe continued: “[Employers should] make it known that they’re there for support. Being proactive and bringing in external organisations for education is a really great idea. Because lots of employers aren’t going to be across addiction, they’re not going to be able to educate or hold their staff in that. But there are people who can.”

“Support them to reach out for help. We all know when someone’s going downhill, and often, we’re so unskilled that we don’t even know how to broach it with a friend or a colleague.”

Reducing stigma is key. It can be difficult to help someone when shame is involved, so being transparent, open, and honest can help to break these barriers down.

“There’s so much shame around it that we don’t want to shame them by even saying, ‘Hey it seems like you’re drinking a bit much, you’re pretty dusty throughout the week’. People don’t want to bring that up; there’s too much shame involved,” Ms Stokoe said.

“Fostering a culture where those sorts of things are spoken about and employers can role model that by bringing it in to staff meetings and talking about their own mental health challenges.”

Ms Stokoe added: “There is so much help out there. It’s not as though we have to suffer in silence anymore. There’s counselling; you can go to your GP and get a mental health care plan. There [are] lots on offer.”

If you or someone you know are struggling with addiction, reach out to Lifeline at https://www.lifeline.org.au/

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.