Are you a workaholic?

Do you avoid vacations, or when you take one, do you get irritable and worry that something at work will go awry because you’re not there? Do miss important family events, like birthdays or anniversaries, because of work?

These are just a few of the signs that you could be a workaholic, said Jeff Fine-Thomas, a psychotherapist in Oklahoma City.

“Workaholism is characterized, in part, by an obsessive focus on work to the exclusion of other important things in life,” he said.

Overwork is just one behavior that can lead to stress, especially in the tough economic times we’re experiencing, said Dr. R. Murali Krishna, president of Integris Mental Health.

“Many people are under a lot of stress and overwhelmed with sense off helplessness,” he said. “That is increasing the sense of stress on the human body.”

And stress can affect almost everything, Krishna said. It can cause physical changes in your body, such as increased heart rate, shallow breathing, headaches, backaches, high blood pressure, even lowered immune responses and difficulty fighting off illness.

“There’s not one part of the body I know of that is not affected by stress, including skin and eyes and muscles,” he said.

Stress from work or any other obsession can also create social problems, such as making a person irritable, temperamental and argumentative, even forgetful and inattentative. Pamela Garcy, clinical psychologist in Dallas, said if a person were “trained” in childhood to suppress emotions, stress might even lead to “maladaptive behaviors” such as alcohol and drug abuse or overeating.

“Stress is a funny thing,” she said. “Everybody is different.”