Can Overwork Kill You?
This week, the Forbes website has published another article about karoshi, a phenomenon in which relatively young people who work long hours die suddenly. “Karoshi” is a Japanese word that means “overwork death.” If you scroll down the list of Google search results, you will find that, for almost as long as magazines have been publishing online versions, articles about karoshi pop up every now and then. This is not even the first time that Forbes has written about the subject. The media stereotype about karoshi is full of exoticizing tropes about work-obsessed men in Asian countries being so focused on their tasks that they do not notice their symptoms of illness or their need for food or sleep. Even the Wikipedia article on karoshi admits, though, that even the earliest media reports in Japan about karoshi deaths acknowledged that the proximate cause of death was heart attack or stroke. The idea of working oneself to death may seem foreign to you, but you probably know plenty of people who work more than 40 hours per week and have an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. If you are caught in a cycle of increasing workloads and worsening health, contact a Boca Raton debt lawyer.
The Myth of the Workaholic
Just as it is easy to find people who blame you and scold you if you are not in the workforce, you also face your share of shaming if you spend a lot of time on your work. Everywhere you click, there are headlines about how Americans work too much, paired with pictures of beachside paradises where people can allegedly disengage their minds from work. Then there are the trolls, online and in real life, that tell you that work is a pathology and a mental illness symptom. It is true that some people with depression or anxiety take on additional tasks at work because staying busy helps them manage their symptoms, but this is not why Americans work so much. We work as much as we do because we need the money to support ourselves and the people close to us who do not have the health and the work opportunities we have.
Why Do People Keep Pushing Themselves at Work Even If It Harms Their Health?
Meanwhile, plenty of Americans have undiagnosed or poorly managed cardiovascular disease and other poorly managed chronic health conditions. We put off going to the doctor because we are as afraid of the bill as we are of the diagnosis. We are collecting every paycheck we can until ill health catches up to us.
Don’t risk getting so sick that you can no longer work. You might not be able to make a well-paying job materialize, but you might be able to make your medical bills disappear. A debt relief lawyer can help you settle your medical debts or discharge them in bankruptcy.
Work With a Debt Lawyer About Coping With Medical Debt
A South Florida debt lawyer can help you if you feel like you have to choose between supporting your family and looking after your health. Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Boca Raton, Florida to discuss your case.
Source:
forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2025/06/01/karoshi-the-unspoken-killer-that-can-end-your-career-and-life/
