The impact of emotional deprivation on professional life — why is mental health never talking about it?

Just like being in love can complicate our work, the absence of love complicates it just as much.

I could have told you about Jean-Claude so you could relate a little, but honestly, it’s not necessary.

You just have to tap back into your own experience. The emotions come up immediately. It’s no longer conceptual understanding — it’s visceral.

Can mental health at work really be separated from mental health in private life?

It’s not about drawing a clear, airtight boundary between two universes: work on one side, the rest of life on the other.

On a practical level, sure, it’s possible.

Emotionally, thinking that way is just absurd.

That’s also why all those shallow quick-fix tips are useless — they only address part of the problem.

There are at least three kinds of loneliness:

• the one you live with when you’re alone at home

• the one you live with at work

• the one you live with in your relationship

Max-out doesn’t stay at the office. It comes home with you. It settles in your bed, in your silences and irritations, in your forever-postponed projects.

It “creates” distance — and in our current social environment, our lifestyles help it along.

Exhaustion drains conversations. Shared time becomes scarce, then nonexistent. Projects keep waiting for “the right moment” that never comes. Vacations are taken over by work.

And eventually, your intimate life withers away — if it’s still standing at all.

These are not accidents. The system is working exactly as intended.

Max-out isn’t just a workplace health issue. It’s a social model of work that devours everything: couples, family life, even births (yes, demography too).

The real question isn’t “how do I manage my time better?”

It’s: why do we keep accepting a world where working “normally” means disappearing from our own lives?

What, were you expecting a happy ending?

Wake up — and it starts here: https://zenodo.org/records/17271367