Depression Among Entrepreneurs is an Epidemic Nobody is Talking About

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How many times have you said “I’m fine” in the last week?

A lot. But why?

It says nothing about what’s really going on. In fact, it’s 100 times worse. Because most of the time, it’s like saying, ‘I’m eating a shit sandwich right now, but let’s both begrudgingly pretend that I said something real.’

“Being fine” is covering up a deeper problem. A lot of times, people just bullshit when things are bad — whether it’s just one of those days where everything went wrong, or something more, like long term feelings of depression.

It can be even worse for entrepreneurs, who are trying to prove that they have what it takes and feel like they have to pretend they’ve got it all together as they ride the inevitable up and downs of the startup rollercoaster.

Everyone gets pissed and upset when they bomb a presentation, spill their latte on their pants or get their car towed. But a lot of entrepreneurs are living with the day-to-day, long-term sadness of depression.

“Feeling bummed out is just feeling bummed,” psychologist Glen Moriarty told me. Depression takes a bigger toll.

But Moriarty, who founded a website that helps people chat about depression online with trained counselors, said depression involves two weeks or more of sadness, negative self-worth, change in sleeping patterns, and a host of other symptoms that keep you from living normally.

If you’re entrepreneurial and you’re living with depression, you have a lot of company.

http://thehustle.co/depression-among-entrepreneurs-is-an-epidemic-nobody-is-talking-about

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Dude you forgot to add the number for Edible Catering…

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Sharing is the first step towards overcoming depression. You start by sharing Edible Catering’s digits… #Winning

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It’s not 2am yet @Tola. Don’t be in a haste.
BTW have you had your Third Haircut this week?
Please don’t go to that hotel room looking like an Agbero. :slight_smile:

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it appears the entrepreneurs on radar are the happiest people ever

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Tola is a G. Hahaha.

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I join in the laughter @Tola :joy: :joy:. Quite funny indeed, but you ended up derailing this beautiful thread. Why don’t we come back home!

Depression among entrepreneurs could stem from many factors: work, family, love life, economic environment, etc. Among these, depression due to non-existent or difficult love life is, unfortunately, often not discussed. Most entrepreneurs are too busy to find a love partner. Most entrepreneurs are introverted. Most who have love life are so poor at it. They cannot bring out time for their partner, hence love life suffers. And each day, they do what they are so good at: cover up their woes with more work and work and work!

Nature is the hardest thing to fight against. So once in a while, nature reminds you of how miserable and pathetic you are! That of all things in the world, with your successes in business and other endeavours, you can’t maintain a love life. And it hits you that it seems nobody likes you. You begin to ask yourself questions: am I not successful enough? Am I not handsome enough? Am I not intelligent enough? Am I not spiritual enough? Heck no, I am! Look at my friend, he’s got nothing compared to me, but he’s got a GF who loves him so much. How does he do it?

Then you feel like crying, you feel like abandoning everything, you feel like hiding under your table so that no one sees you again ever. Then you remember work! Damn, I’ve got milestones to achieve. And you are back at work again. And this cycle repeats it over and over and over again.

You are now over 30, a beautiful and successful lady and seems not man is looking your way. Life is unfair, a hypocrite, a sadist… You can bear the thought of it, and you immerse yourself in more work.

You’ve got bae, but you are too busy. You don’t call. You don’t have time to go out. You forget her birthdays. You don’t notice when she’s had a new hairdo. Bae begins to complain. You are busy telling her that you are busy, moreover, you are providing her with the things she’s asking for. Bae is pissed off. Bae leaves you! You are shattered. You cry yourself to bed

Depression is real. Irrespective of the causal factors. Maybe, we should have a forum on this!

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So according to this depression = being alone?!

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Did everything I wrote above mean “depression” = “being alone?” If that is your interpretation, fine!!

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What is the right interpretation we should have though? I’m confused myself. All examples are of people who either can’t get a partner, or careless enough to lose one.

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Well, as per my examples (focused on love life as one of the causal factors for depression), these “people” get depressed. Unless, we think nobody gets depressed because of lack of or poor love life.

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No, but its easy to see how anyone would see that as the takeaway. It kind of watered down the essence of the original post.

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Not necessarily, it just needs MOAR examples.

You are 40, but have no savings and have been slaving away for the last ten years at a startup that barely pays the bills. If you were to experience a medical or family emergency, it would be catastrophic…

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(retracted.)

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Thank you for adding the personal story. Frank Ocean is my guy too! We need another album though. He needs to get out of his own personal funk now.

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I saw this post yesterday and was derailed cause @Tola :joy:

This morning though, my cofounder calls to tell me she’s in hospital. According to her doctor, She has extremely high blood pressure. She’s been going through a bout of depression and it has descended into this. This is the second time this has happened. It’s like we tag team each other in having dangerous mental states. When she’s fine, I’m depressed and vice-versa. It’s gotten easier to deal with now. We know each others triggers (And no, its not being alone, far from) and how to pull each other out of the darkness.

All I can say, it really helps not to go at it alone. More than you can ever know.

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Thank you for sharing your personal experiences @akindolu and @Sherrytums. Support from friends and family is so important whenever one is dealing with depression.

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