That said, I believe pacing yourself is a big part of managing the mental health issues. Make sure you eat, sleep, exercise, and take appropriate breaks, even if you feel you have to work. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
I really hope this is sarcasm, because I feel like this is a terrible mentality to have.
Your second point is completely true and much more sensible. It's about working sustainably.
What's different is depression. I don't know of a way to make myself feel positive about the bouts of depression. Then again, I've dealt with depression all my life. It seems independent of my founder life. Panic attacks, on the other hand, are very much a product of my founder life.
Treating panic attacks (which generally only occur at night, waking me up from sleep) as a natural result of the work is just a coping mechanism. It may not be the best one, or even a good one, but it works well enough for me.
I have tried to live by that for the last 20 years but it's hard to remember it's "just the suckiness" at 3 am for the Nth night in a row.
I think it's important to modify that advice with a heavy dose of reality testing: if it's really that important, where are the other people? Does it really need to be this hard? Are the others out of touch or is it me? In short, what environmental modifiers can I affect, and what environmental cues can I calibrate on?
The problem is this means for now, I'm working two jobs, and I'm heading for a rough transition to working just one and the financial implications of that. That's a lot of stress.
On the other hand, doing a job I have come to despise until I'm too old to do it anymore, instead of doing something that matters to me, that makes me feel meaningful and accomplished... that's a whole different kind of stress. That's the kind that grinds you down and wears you to a nub. Once you hit a certain age, perspective really starts to set in. I look around at people in their 40s and 50s, and they're broken. They think their best years and best opportunities are all behind them. I look at mine, and they're ahead of me. That keeps me alive.