Anxiety and Depression Are the Sworn Enemies of Self-Employed Business Owners

The grass is always greener in someone else's yard is an old cliché that retains a strong element of truth. People who work nine to five for an employer often fantasize about the freedom they would enjoy if they worked for themselves at home; and people who work at home often live with an element of constant worry that they will not achieve the necessary economic stability for themselves and their families.

Especially in times of economic uncertainty such as these, the self-employed home-based worker is vulnerable to this natural doubt and concern turning into full-fledged anxiety or depression. The clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression are easily found online, and I won't elaborate on them here. But suffice it to say that both conditions (and they often occur together) involve massive seemingly uncontrollable feelings of self-doubt, guilt, and an overpowering emotional paralysis. Anxiety and depression are the sworn enemies of the self-employed, because they sap the energy and gumption it takes to make a business succeed.

As a person with a home-based business, I write this from experience. Here are some of the circumstances and conditions that can lead to anxiety and depression for a person working at home for themselves, as well as a few suggestions as to how to keep these conditions at bay.

Self-doubt and self-blame can arise from isolation: As much as successful self-employed workers have already established that they can be committed and disciplined in getting their work done, they often don't realize that they are suffering the mounting effects of social isolation. They have no one to compare notes with, to compete with, to measure themselves against, to kid and joke with, or even to gossip with. They are a world of one. Thus, when business lags, or something goes even slightly wrong, they can easily magnify and blame their own role in the problem, instead of realistically assessing the part played by market conditions, and often complicated and unseen influences on their businesses by other businesses, clients, or other players in the chain of whatever goods or service they are providing. While it is, of course, important to take personal responsibility for one's decisions and actions, it is also necessary to realistically assess why a problem is occurring if one has hopes of remedying it. Unrealistic self-blame can often lead to depression and paralysis.

Going hand in hand with the above phenomenon is the way in which isolation can cause a lack of creative perspective. If sales or consulting jobs slow down, one often feels that there is nothing they can do to change things. This is because there is little or no input coming into their worlds to spark and trigger new ideas. Creative ideas rarely emanate from isolated situations. More often they emerge when an individual compares an idea of what could be, and how, to what is already being effected in the world.

Thus isolation can lead to self-doubt, which can lead to self-blame, depression and paralysis. But isolation can additionally result from having the media (radio, tv, and internet) as one's most constant work companion. While entrepreneurship is highly touted in our society, it is also often simultaneously portrayed as reckless. When addressing the subject, the media never lets us forget that half of all small business end in failure! Thus, when a downturn occurs, we can easily think: "How could I have been so stupid! Who was I to think I could do this when so many others have failed?" But again, we are having this dialog with only ourselves, not with an objective interlocutor!

How to gain some perspective:

Imagine if we belonged to a community group of similarly self-employed people who had a place to meet and discuss things. Imagine if some of us ate breakfast or lunch together once or twice a week to compare notes and exchange humor and even complaints! Even envisioning such a possibility feels like opening a window and letting in some light and fresh air. I recently heard a National Public Radio story about self-employed IT consultants who brought their laptops and their daily work to each other's apartments so that they could work in proximity to other people. They did little talking with each other during work hours, but they found working this way was better for their spirits! They did eat lunch and took coffee breaks together.

Look for opportunities, both in "real life" and online, to communicate with others who work at home. Though we are all busy and it may be hard for any of us to organize such groups, I predict that at some point in the near future, local organizations will exist that give some emotional and social support to those who work at home-- both self-employed and not.

For now, be sure to do the following:

1) Get up around the same time everyday and dress fully for work: The dream of "working in one's pajamas" wears thin very quickly and feels slothful. One feels better when dressed and ready to interact with the world. Don't entirely blur the lines between work hours and time to do other things. Work hard and then stop work and attend to household needs and recreation.

2) Plan time to go out into the world. Whether to have breakfast, lunch, or a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop, go where there are people and do your best to talk with people.

3) Make some time for exercise. It will help create energy, stave off negative emotional states, and prime your brain for creativity.

4) Keep up your social contacts. Talk daily with friends and / or family.

5) Remember, though you may be experiencing financial concern and uncertainty, so are thousands of people currently in an unrewarding daily grind jobs, working for others, who are now additionally afraid of being laid-off. Many of these workers are harboring fantasies of and making plans for working for themselves! If they do, they will be just starting out in a bad economy, whereas you already of oodles of experience and knowledge about your business and about how working for youself works.