Midas, a Karōshi Victim

Why do sick people work until they are demoted or fired? Why don’t they take a break? Some even overwork until they die. The Japanese call it 過労死 or karōshi, meaning overwork-death.

Midas wasn’t just a rich and powerful king. He was also just like us—an everyday worker. Everything he touched turned into gold. He became the most productive worker in the world! But at the end he died terribly, a karōshi victim.

Our society demands productivity, and we inherit that demand as our own, even as we harm our lives. Midas turned olive trees into gold; we turn rainforests into barren fields. Midas turned food into gold; we poison our fish with mercury, ruin our crops with pesticides. Midas turned his wife and children into gold; we destroy our own relationships.

People judge Midas for his greed. But who doesn’t fancy a little alchemy? His vice was ignorance. He didn’t know he would turn the living into dead. If he had known better, he would have chosen wiser. We are the same. We want to work hard and succeed—nothing greedy about that. The problem comes when we don’t know when to stop. Instead of resting, we overwork. Instead of pursuing protection, we resist it. So many of my disability clients have told me, if they had known better, they would have applied for benefits sooner.

In addition to ignorance, there is guilt. Many clients delay applying for benefits because they feel guilty about not working. They don’t want help from others. For them, it is better to suffer than to be guilty.

Guilt, according to psychiatrist David R. Hawkins, is expressed in “shouldn’ts.” I shouldn’t be sick. I shouldn’t be disabled. I shouldn’t be an unproductive member of the society. I shouldn’t disappoint my coworkers and boss. I shouldn’t let my family down.

My good friend, Adam, jokes that the world is ruled by lizard-people and humans are enslaved by them to work, work, work for the pleasure of the humanoid lizards. Their leader is Lord Lizard, who encourages people to overwork and discourages them from spending time on family, friends, health, well-being—everything that resonates with love, which is what Lord Lizard hates the most. Perhaps it was Lord Lizard who gave Midas the gift of the golden touch. Lord Lizard has other tricks besides guilt. I will warn you on the road ahead.

Guilt is what Lord Lizard likes us to feel about our human condition; that our body grows old, gets sick, dies. If you feel guilty about getting sick and taking time off for your health, try self-compassion, a technique taught by Rosanna Franklin, PhD. It has three steps:

1) Acknowledge the guilty feelings. No matter how they feel, let them be. Don’t push them away, don’t fuel them—let them dissipate on their own.

2) Acknowledge our common humanity, that all humans go through pain, suffering, self-blame, and guilt. We are not alone in our human condition.

3) Retune the inner voice, shift its tone from harsh and blaming to encouraging and constructive.

You don’t have to practice self-compassion alone. Hire a mental health professional to process your guilt. And read David R. Hawkins’s book Letting Go.

Excerpt from my book, The Art and Law Of Rest: A Legal Guide To Paid Medical Leave For Mental Health, available here on amazon.