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Tech Entrpreneurs and Anxiety/Depression

Discussion in 'General Discussion Subforum' started by Forest, Oct 12, 2014.

  1. Forest

    Forest Beloved Grand Eagle

    In our thread about Neurasthenia/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ie TMS), @BruceMC wrote,
    A couple of days ago, I was struck by a radio report about anxiety and depression among people working at tech startups in Boston:
    You can listen to the story here: startup anxiety.

    They had Dana Severson as a guest. Here's his story, from an article in The Atlantic entitled, "Tech Has A Depression Problem:"
    You can read the entire article here: Tech has a Depression Problem.

    Both stories really grabbed me because I could relate to the ups and downs of running a startup. Will what you create keep growing for the rest of your life or will it be gone in five years? Acceptance is an amazing tool for mental healthy, but when there is that much uncertainty, you can't become "well adjusted." What do you adjust to? The good outcome or the bad? Life can be a rollercoaster, depending on which you think will happen.

    In a startup, you have to do a million things that you've never had to do before, and the pressure can be intense, because it could either be the biggest success of your life or a complete failure, and you don't know which. Hence the rollercoaster.
     
    Forest, Oct 12, 2014
    #1
  2. Ellen

    Ellen Beloved Grand Eagle

    Perhaps the concept of outcome independence is applicable to running a start up, as well as to TMS. Try to relax and enjoy the ride, though definitely hard to do when the ride is a roller coaster.:)
     
    Ellen, Oct 12, 2014
    #2
    Forest likes this.
  3. BruceMC

    BruceMC Beloved Grand Eagle

    Didn't think I'd open such a delicious can of TMS worms with my jaded observations about CFS and the startup world, Forest. But don't you think that "cyber space" by its very abstract nature is intrinsically stressful to the psyche? Maybe that's why so many accountants come down with CTS as their company starts to tank? The stress becomes locked into a self-amplifying cyber feedback loop that gets more and more intense as the declining sales figures surge through the accountant's fingers into a relational database on a hard drive or up in the Cloud. As Ellen implies, you have to be realistic and keep in mind that for every 1000 start ups in the Silicon Valley only 1 or 2 go public. Enjoy the ride while it lasts without harboring unrealistic expectations.
     
    BruceMC, Oct 13, 2014
    #3
    Forest and Ellen like this.

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