Julie Parker's Beautiful, Messy, Meaningful Business Journey

This is an episode it took me 3 attempts at recording. Not because of technical difficulties but because it felt so damn uncomfortable. And important.

In today's episode of The Meaningful Business Podcast I'm sharing my experience of living and running a business while managing a long term mental health condition.

It's something I've mentioned before in passing, but as it's Mental Health Awareness week here in the UK, I'm making the choice to be a lot more open about my mental health experiences because:

a. I think the more we can normalise mental health the less stigma there will be around it. And the less stigma there is, the less shame people will hopefully have around asking for help.

1 in 4 of us experience mental health issues so it shouldn't be the dark secret it is for so many - including myself. 

Mental health challenges drain you of so much precious life force and energy - the very least we can do is try and remove the unnecessary additional strain of trying to keep it secret too.

b. There are inherent risk factors for mental health baked into a lot of the culture of entrepreneurship - and this needs to stop. now.

c. I know that I am far from the only business owner who lives with a mental health condition so I'm sharing in the hope that by seeing that it's totally possible to have a sustainable business even with the added burden of a mental health challenge. 

In this episode I share my own experience of living with anxiety, depression and OCD (obsessive thoughts variety), and some of the things I've put in place - both from a business perspective and a personal/lifestyle one, to support and sustain me. 

Links mentioned in this episode on Business and mental health:

Going There With Jen Podcast

Anxiety UK

Time To Change UK based charity

NAMI (US based grassroots mental health support service)