This blog post is part of the 4th Annual Suicide Prevention Awareness Month blog tour. If you are feeling suicidal, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741
It doesn’t come as a big surprise that there’s a link between struggling with money and struggling with mental health. Depression, especially clinical depression, causes many missed days at work. But if you do manage to go into work, you face mental check-outs. You can’t focus, so you’re not productive.
Couple this with having more bills than money in the bank, not only is this stressful but also it’s demoralizing. This is especially true when you are constantly surrounded by or reading about people who have become millionaires in their 20s or 30s, and then they retired.
(It’s called the FIRE Movement. You can read more about it here)
When you’re an entrepreneur and a business owner, you feel even more of an obligation to live up to the hype. You may have to impress and capture the interest of investors. You may have employees relying on you. You may have a small team of independent contractors helping you do more than you normally would in your “technically” one-person shop.
Now imagine you have a family who relies on you. You have to pay for two mortgages, childcare expenses, and medical expenses. The debt just keeps accumulating. You’re one financial crisis, one lost client gig away from ruin.
What’s really going on behind our professional smiles and firm handshakes?
Everything inside you wants to cry out & tell someone that you are struggling, but you can’t because you are trying to save face. You’re embracing that tired entrepreneurial cliche, “Fake it until you make it.”
All this is, is a recipe for Passive Suicidal Ideation. It’s the desire to die. It’s not accompanied by a plan to end your life. But the thoughts are real and intense. And they can lead to Active Suicidal Ideation with an actual plan to end your life if you don’t take them seriously.
According to Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, if you’ve had a “major financial crisis” within the past six months, (which can happen quite frequently as an entrepreneur) you are nearly eight times more likely to experience suicidal thoughts. And while you might never intend to act on those thoughts, it can and has happened. On the flip side of that, common symptoms of mental health problems, such as increased impulsivity and memory problems, can make it harder to keep on top of financial management. Impulsivity is also a trait often attributed to entrepreneurs.
One of the main reasons I was motivated to write my book, “Success to Die for” is that I wanted to advocate for mental wellness amongst business leaders to prevent entrepreneur suicides. Whenever I thought about business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs I will be the 1st to admit I assumed they were “go-getters,” “super strong,” “ultra productive,” and “has it all together.” That was until I became a business owner myself that I quickly learned whatever load you’re carrying around in your life comes right along with you into whatever business venture you’re embarking on in some form or another. And that includes mental health issues.
How can we Be The Change…for real?
Too many of us are suffering in silence, faking as if everything is awesome. It’s time for leaders to stand up and have real conversations about mental health for suicide prevention. And these conversations need to take place more than once a month.
Now I pose some questions to you: how can you help support suicide prevention? How can you overcome Suicidal Ideation? How can you help someone you know overcome Suicidal Ideation?
Here’s a few suggestions:
1) Take mental health first aid to know the signs, so you can assist a loved one in need.
2) Walk to fight suicide and raise funds for more research.
3) Join an online mental health peer support community like Love Yourself Love Your Business.
4) Maybe most important of all: talk to someone you see struggling. Reach out to someone when you are struggling. You’d be amazed how much a simple conversation might help. Not sure how to reach out? Learn more by clicking here.
Until Next Time…Peace!
Oh! By the way, if you want to learn more about the blogger of this post feel free to check out my about page.