Startup depression

I think it's more a backlash because it was often a topic not spoken about _and_ it has a lot of fear potential for people working with their brains mostly. Some high-profile suicides (aaronsw and others) have probably raised the interest as well.

Also, in my experience, the IT crowd is far more mobile than many other professions. I run multiple meetups and do get the feeling that they are important personal contact points for many. The tech scene as your first personal safety net. So advertising such things into this space directly makes a lot of sense.

Learning about mental health is important for people running a business. They need to look after their mental wellbeing. They also need to avoid discriminating against employees who have a mental illness.

http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/mental-health-statistics-fa...

Stigma around mental ill-health makes it harder for people to get work; to stay in work; to seek help for their mental health problems (both informal help from friends, colleagues, and family; and formal help from talking-therapists or doctors) and also from seeking help for other illness. For example: a person who self harms on their arm may avoid doctor appointments where blood is taken or blood pressure is taken because that person does not want to reveal their self harm. (This also applies to women who self harm on their thighs avoiding gyno appointments.)

Ignoring all the human stuff this has costs to business and to society: about 70 million days are lost to UK industry because of mental ill-health. Billions of pounds (£) are lost to mental ill health.

Some simple measures could reduce that a lot. Building a culture where people can talk about their mental health is important. Allowing people to access therapies while staying working is important.

http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/your-organisation/support-w...

- Enroll in a soccer team

- Take tango dancing classes

From there, it just went naturally. Of course, your situation might be different, but indeed staying alone at home doesn't help much.

When I was at my worst with my depression, by all objective measures my life was going just great - good girlfriend, lots of money, stable and interesting work. When I started receiving treatment, my life was by the same measures in much worse shape - had just gotten fired from a job for non-performance (due to a total inability to concentrate, as well as the lack of motivation that usually goes with depression), was broke as broke can be, was having a lot of relationship problems and so on. With my neurotransmitters tweaked, I felt better while dealing with very difficult circumstances than I ever did with untreated clinical depression and an otherwise-easy life situation.

I am not trying to dismiss the emotional turmoil that people no doubt experience in stressful and uncertain circumstances like starting a business, but I think it's important to understand the difference between that emotional state and the sort of irrational utter despair that people suffering from mental illness feel. I think the tools needed to address each problem are likely to differ significantly - no amount of therapy or reading r/GetMotivated (bizarrely linked in the article above) would change the fact that I was experiencing the effects of what was most likely a physical ailment.