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Most of us are often told to work hard since they will reap benefits in the end. But has anyone told you about the downside like maybe tying up ADHD or anxiety disorders on workaholics?

The claim does sound a bit odd though a study from Plos One does give a better view on how workaholism could lead to some form of psychiatric or behavioral disorder. Disorders would include attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), something that many may not expectedly agree.

Scientists from the University of Bergen in Norway took the lead in examining workaholics in an effort to set things straight. That includes studying the alleged workaholics and observe if they are in any way affected by some form of behavioral disorder.

Per the study, workaholics are defined as "overly concerned about work, driven by an uncontrollable work motivation, and investing so much time and effort to work that it impairs other important life areas".

Researchers categorized workaholism as something similar to addictive behavior thought drawing the line between that and excessive enthusiasm was pretty difficult to set.

In the modern world, workaholics are considered the people who spend more time working than usual though some resort to it to cover up other personal issues like depression, guilt or even inferiority.

Normally, it would take close friends or loved ones to remind them of the realities of life in an effort to show that life is not all about burying yourself with work.

The study covered 16,426 adults which aimed to see how workaholics fared in terms of mental health and behavioral disorders. The participants were asked to answer some questionnaires which included adult ADHD self-report scaling, obsession-compulsive inventory, as well as hospital anxiety and depression scale.

Results showed that workaholics scored high on all the psychiatric symptoms over non-workaholics.

ADHD returned 32.7% individuals meeting criteria against only 12.7% for the non-workaholics while anxiety had 33.8 % for workaholics against 11.9% for the opposite. More than a quarter of workaholics presented signs of OCD and nearly 9% signs of depression.

Researchers cautioned that more work will be needed to back the claim that workaholics may still be in need of some form of mental health support.

"[While awaiting] more research, physicians should not take for granted that a seemingly successful workaholic does not have ADHD-related or other clinical features. Their considerations affect both the identification and treatment of these disorders," said lead author Cecilie Schou Andreassen.