Managing Your Mental Health as an Entrepreneur: What I've Learned in Six Months of Running My Own Business

Six months ago, I was laid off after eleven years at the same company. This week marks the half-year point of running my own business. In that time, I've learned something I didn't fully appreciate when I was a corporate employee with bipolar disorder: managing your mental health as an entrepreneur is a different sport.

I had seven years of practice keeping my mental health steady inside a job. I went through inpatient and outpatient treatment in 2018 after my bipolar disorder diagnosis. I kept my job. I built strong work boundaries. I powered down hours before bed. I trusted my system.

In the first month of running my own business, I almost broke all of it.

This is what I wish someone had told me, and what I'd tell any founder, especially any founder living with bipolar disorder, ADHD, or any kind of mental health diagnosis.

Set Work Hours, Even When You Don't Have a Boss

In the early days of my business, I bent and broke a lot of my former work boundaries because I thought of entrepreneurship as different. When you have a job, you get a reliable paycheck. When you're an entrepreneur, you have to create that financial opportunity for yourself. So instead of relaxing at night and watching a favorite show, I'd be on my computer making content, updating things, reaching out to people, working late into the night.

My therapist said to me, "I think you need to consider setting work hours for yourself." My first reaction was, "I can't do that anymore. I'm an entrepreneur."

I was wrong.

I do need work hours. Not in spite of being an entrepreneur, but because I'm an entrepreneur. So I can sustain this. So I can show up and produce long term instead of burning myself out from poor sleep. My therapist also pointed out that since I wasn't enjoying TV anymore (which I love), it was probably because I felt guilty, like I should be doing something else. With designated work hours, my downtime felt like rest instead of avoidance.

My energy during the day went up. My sleep got better. The work didn't suffer.

The Dopamine Trap That Destabilizes a Bipolar (and ADHD) Brain

Entrepreneurship is exciting. That excitement is a dopamine cycle, and a dopamine cycle can destabilize a bipolar brain. It can destabilize anyone, honestly. Suddenly you have all these exciting things in front of you and they require a lot of time, energy and effort. If you're not aware of the cycle and when you need to pause, you'll tip over the edge fast.

I know what it looks like when I start tipping into hypo-mania. Sleep is the first signal. If I'm not sleeping enough, my brain gets more addicted to the dopamine and excitement of things. I track my sleep with my Oura Ring so I can sometimes get ahead of it. I'll see that my brain was going late the night before, and I can adjust my medication timing or take a little more the next night to reset.

There are other signals too, some of them ADHD-related. A lot of tasks started, none finished. Frantic movement my partner can see before I can. Walking out of a room and realizing I left every cabinet open.

In entrepreneurship, the dopamine trap usually shows up around money. Anytime I have an idea that's expensive, I pause. I don't make quick spending decisions. Financial fear is a useful grounding force in this business. And that’s coming from someone who spent nearly $3,000 in under an hour, the day before my hospitalization. Because of course I needed a new iPhone and a personal Mac laptop to be successful.

Pause Before You Spend (A Real Story)

A few weeks ago I sent out a bunch of pitches to be a guest on different podcasts. One of them was Mental Illness Happy Hour with Paul Gilmartin, a dream booking. His team responded and said if I was ever in LA, they'd love to have me on.

My first instinct was to book a flight. Then I paused. I asked when they record so I could pair the trip with something else.

That pause is the foundation for the whole story.

While I was sitting on it, an old contact at Pool Nation reached out about an industry guest for Success, Rewritten, my show. The guest, Jay, lost his brother to suicide and is starting to share that journey publicly. We hopped on a call. At the end I said, "Great, when can we record?" He said, "I'd love to do this in person." He lives right outside of LA.

The last week of May I'm flying to LA. In one day I'm interviewing Jay, plus his friend Charlotte (an author who lost her husband to suicide), plus another guest, J. Johnson, who lives with ADHD and created High Frequency Highway - vibrational sound earphones designed for neurodivergent brains. Then I'm guesting on Mental Illness Happy Hour.

If I hadn't paused, I would have booked a flight and missed all of it.

You Need a Support Team. Build It on Purpose.

My support team starts with my care team: my psychologist, my psychiatrist, and my coach. They're the foundation. They understand my medication, my triggers, what a danger zone looks like.

But my support team can't be only clinical. My husband is part of it. My friends are part of it. When I worked at my old company, my coworkers were part of it. They knew what to look for.

As an entrepreneur, you have to do more work to build that team and keep them informed. I tell my people what to look for, and we come up with safe phrases together. So when something gets named, I don't have an overreaction. I can actually accept their observation instead of getting defensive.

An example: if my husband sees me in a sped-up mode, he might say, "Hey, seems like you have a lot going on up there." It's a little bit of a joke. It's also a real signal. If it's more serious, he gets more direct: "It seems like there's a lot going on. Have you thought about when you're going to start powering down for tonight?" Or, "Do you know what time you're going to take your pills at?"

Some people would bristle at being asked about their medication. I want to be clear: my husband only does this in the rare moments when he's observing that I'm in an elevated state and don't realize it. He's not asking the next day. He's not micromanaging. We built this language together so he'd have something to say in the moments that matter.

If you have people in your life with things to be aware of, talk about them. Talk about the difference between a bad day and a red flag. Build the script before you need it.

Build Community Where Your Coworkers Used To Be

This is the part I underestimated most: how much built-in community I had with coworkers.

I've been intentional about building community in this season. I joined an online group for child-free people called The Others Club. There's a virtual component, an entrepreneur subgroup, and a way to meet people locally. Aligning on a lifestyle choice or an interest is a great way to make adult community. Those people get it. I can grab drinks with someone in that group and talk about the stresses of entrepreneurship and the realities of being child-free at the same time.

If you're an entrepreneur and you don't know where to turn, look for a group built around a like-minded hobby or lifestyle, not just a networking group. Industry community matters too. So does the kind of community that has nothing to do with what you do for work.

Sleep Is Non-Negotiable

This will sound contradictory to the entrepreneurial grind narrative. I don't care.

Sleep is the number one way for me to stay healthy and balanced, and the number one way to tip into a very unstable mental place. The medication I take for bipolar disorder helps me sleep, but I still have to practice good sleep hygiene or it doesn't matter.

What that looks like for me:

I don't work an hour or two before bed.

I go to sleep within the same window every night and wake up within the same window. I rarely set an alarm.

We have no screens in the bedroom. My husband keeps his phone in the kitchen. I use a meditation app and set the phone next to me, but if I'm reaching for it in the morning, that's my signal to get out of bed.

The bedroom is dark. I keep a sleep mask nearby so if light starts to peek in around the curtains in the early morning, I can get more rest.

I track my sleep with my Oura Ring, but with one caveat: if you already know you're getting bad sleep (newborn baby, for example), tracking might make it worse, not better.

Failure Is Inevitable. Be Quick to Move On.

As an entrepreneur, you're going to pivot. Pivoting can feel like failure. You're also going to actually fail. Hoping otherwise sets you up for emotional damage.

The best way through it is to be okay with it, learn what you can, and pivot. Sometimes there's no lesson. Sometimes it just sucks and that's the whole story. Move on emotionally and re-focus quickly. That's the part that gets you to a real business.

A Final Note

Entrepreneurship is lonelier than I expected. If you're in it, build your community on purpose.

I also believe those of us with ADHD or bipolar disorder or other mental health diagnoses have a little special sauce that makes entrepreneurship a real fit. Cheer yourself on, even on the hard days. Managing your mental health is a challenge for everyone at some point. As an entrepreneur, it's something you get to own and design for yourself.

That's the work I'm in the middle of. I'll keep sharing what I learn.

If this resonates, drop a comment under the episode or DM me on Instagram @bipolarbroughtbalance. I want to hear what's working for you.