Increased Mental Health Issues in Start-Up World What to Watch For, What To Do
The conversation started in November of 2011 when Ilya Zhitomirskiy, the 22 year old cofounder of Diaspora, a social networking site took his own life. In January of 2014 Jody Sherman, founder of the e-commerce site Ecomom took his own life. Brad Feld started talking about his depression in 2007. Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec has spoken publicly about his suicidal thinking. Tim Ferris has openly discusses his depression and suicidal thoughts while a senior at Princeton. Fame, fortune, and success do not buffer anyone from mental health issues. 7% of people in the general population report suffering from depression. The rate in founders is four times that – around 30%. The rate of suicide for men is four times that of women. Sixty four percent of entrepreneurs are male. Forty nine percent of people who start companies admit to having suffered from a mental health disorder including ADHD (29%) and anxiety (27 %.) prior to starting a company.
The traits that lead entrepreneurs to entrepreneurial ventures are often the character traits that make them more vulnerable to strong emotional states and mood swings – invulnerability, strong independent mindset, and risk taking mentality. Super-heroes can’t have weaknesses. Depression, despair, hopelessness, worthlessness, loss of motivation, and suicidal thinking are emotional risks of entrepreneurship. For various reasons, entrepreneurs tend to keep these feelings hidden. Hiding one’s feelings and emotional struggles make them worse.
What does depression look or feel like?
• Change in function – physical, work, family and social.
• Common Symptoms: Sleeplessness; Continuous skittish/nervous; Poor health choices; Low energy; Physical pain such as headaches; Hopelessness; Hyperactivity; Inability to focus; Negative outlook on the future; Isolating; Loss of interest in things that used to make you happy; Suicidal thoughts.
Chaos and turbulence
• You will likely experience turbulence and work instability in the work environment. You will feel scattered and emotionally and cognitively ineffective. This is a scary place and you are bound to spend some time here.
• You are also likely to spend some time struggling with your own internal thoughts and feelings. These states are likely to be influenced by your own personal psychology.
Strong emotion can catapult us back to less effective “default” coping strategies.
• Default strategies are often self-sabotaging. Over drinking. Over eating. Over working.
• Know when you are in “default” and that you have alternatives. This is self-awareness.
• The goal is conscious decision making
Techniques to help deal with depression
• Working at home alone is a sure road to depression. Get out of your house. Be around people. Seek out people especially who know your strengths and are reinforcing.
• Talk! Talk! Talk! To your co-founder, your friends, your significant other, fellow entrepreneurs, staff.
• Your peers are feeling the same things. Knowing that others are in the same boat is calming. They might know some things you don’t about getting stabilized.
• Exercise. Be outside. Eat healthy. Sleep. Play. No kidding. These change your brain chemistry.
• Meditation and mindfulness practices. Neuroscientists have found that these practices decrease negative effects of stress, mild depression, anxiety, and fear.
• Avoid alcohol and drugs.
• Get distracted.
• Music has been found to have a positive effect on emotions.
Get support. Be able to ask for what you need from others. Mental health issues are not a sign of deficiency or abnormality. You would talk about having a cold, right? Strive to know yourself and talk to others about what is going on for you. Be open to hearing from others about their struggles. Create and contribute to a culture of open-ness, honesty, and non-judgment.
Use coaches, and mental health professionals for support, perspective, and treatment
• Coach– You are feeling stuck and have a sense that the stuckness might have a bit to do with your psychological make-up or motivation. You may be concerned about your own individual or team functioning, but you are not having symptoms. Or you just want to ‘rock it’ and don’t have a sense what next steps would be for you individually.
• Mental health professional - When you have physical or behavioral symptoms that are having you feel “on the brink.” See above. This person would likely be covered by your insurance or mental health provider network.