I came to the realization that I'm never going to pursue my creative passion(making comics) full time, and I'm good with that. I need full time regular job money to keep a roof over my head, pay bills, and provide consistent entertainment that I know my creative endeavors would not be able to do.
Luckily for me, my RL gig provides me with good amount of lull time on some days that I can get chunks of creative work done. Sometimes I have NO time, and I go home tired as heck in the late evenings. I try to take the opportunity whenever it arises to get my creative work done...the good part about the "family" is that my kiddo is now an adult and their life is busy enough; my siblings know how I am & they deal with me as is(no wife- me and kiddo's mom didnt work out). I also get work done on weekends...
Sometimes the whole shebang does get to me, but I reflect back on before I started doing my creative stuff and how miserable I was. I'm stressed doing my thing now, but then I have moments where I get wonderful comments on my material, someone makes some fan art of my stuff, or people want to buy my product- and it makes me happy, coz I realize all that work wasnt for nothing.
When I do become overwhelmed, I just step away from the material and relax my mind by watching TV, going to the movies, hanging around my fam, listening to music, cleaning, treat myself to my fave food, and/or playing video games.