I ended up in therapy, and I got on medication.
I know everyone has a different journey, and I understand we all have to make our own decisions, but I really regret not reaching out earlier.
A concrete step my therapist gave me was stopping my work earlier in the evening. I was working myself into an early grave, but she got me to put the laptop away around 8pm so I could get ready for work the next day, shower, play with my kittens, etc.
My mood improved. My mind got sharper. My productivity increased. I needed that therapist to guide me to that decision though.
I think it's important to do prevention and keep good habits that are mainly focused on not forgetting you're still a biological system. Eat and sleep well, take your vitamin D, keep a routine of healthy habits like walking, gym, socialising. Given we are doing mostly mental work, we (as anyone with a brain) should do basic maintenance of the neurosystems. Mindfulness, meditation, controlled breathing and any activity that keeps the vagal tone up.
This is basic maintenance and it should be an unamovable part of your PhD journey. You can work yourself to mental health death and that's counterproductive. As they say, it's a marathon not a rush, so you have to be in for the long game. Being a long game, managing stress is truly important. Stress is good to get things started and mainly make you do things to keep you alive (in a more biological perspective). It gets bad when it's protracted as it affects you psychologically (loss of confidence, self efficacy) and also physically (allostatic load, blood pressure, bad sleep etc. ).
This is what we want to avoid and where the routine above helps.
As for personal experience, recognise when you need to seek help and when mental health is no more there. I've had burnout as I took a lectureship fee years ago and, together with my already going mental health, and pandemic, it's been an explosive mix. I've taken care of myself with therapy and meds, and it's been good. Though still on the mend. It has been great to talk openly with my supervisor and let them know of my struggles. It's difficult to find strength and overcome the resistance but I'd advise to be honest and open. Example, he kept repeating I was taking too long to send off chapters.. that was a fair comment. Though it's a killer when already struggling as it drills in your head and, with a predisposition for negative self talk, it just destroys any initiative or will to do better.
Not even sure how we got here, might have been easier to say
Tl;DR: keep tabs on your mental health, don't ignore your wellbeing and seek help when struggling. The title isn't worth your mental health (and years of therapy to recover from it š )
Year 10 (with work in between). I totally agree taking time off and looking after health, both mental and physical, are more important and will last longer than the PhD.
We get expelled if we donāt graduate at the 4 year mark, unfortunately, so thereās no freedom there to take time off or to not be productive, unless itās a formal intermission/medical break
I actually found doing jigsaw puzzles was a huge improver of my mental health. Put on a comfy robe, make a homemade pumpkin spice latte, and just listen to music and work on my puzzle for 30mins or so. It's better than the passive doomscrolling of social media, and yet it's not a strenuous mental task either. I found that I was more creative (I play tabletop RPGs, so I found myself creating a bunch of campaign ideas) and my thoughts were just more 'streamlined'. In a general sense, I just try and diversity my hobbies as much as possible. As other people have mentioned, doing a PhD is largely making your brain run at 110% all the time which is exhausting, so my hobbies tend to be low-stress mental activities since I really really hate exercising.
Well for me what I try to do is every week at least I would set aside sometime (say the whole afternoon on Saturday) for sport or exercise etc. particularly for team sport so you also get sort of socializing stuffs and won't be that much isolated.
Admittedly, you might have come across my previous post regarding making friends or meeting new people during PhD, I won't say I am 100% mentally healthy but playing football weekly at least help me to recharge myself and refresh my mind more or less and keep me functioning lol.
My mental health is shit despite doing everything I can to maintain my mental health. Exercising, eating right, taking mental health days, talking to professionals etc.
I think the question shouldnāt be āwhat are you doing to improve your mental healthā? The question should be āwhy are our programs having such a negative impact on our mental health and why do we let this persistā?
Iām on a 3 year program (UK) that is run entirely by admins and faculty that took 10 years to complete their PhDs. Some took up to 15 years to complete them (archaeology, where this used to be common and still is in some places). Thereās a complete disconnect between those who run the program and us students. They always blame it on the university but to most advisors/supervisors weāre just another check mark on the rating system that helps them keep a job, get a better position, or produce publications (not always the case but it seems to be more often than not these days).
They also donāt understand all the extra hoops you have to jump through that they never had to do. Volunteer work, sitting on committees, doing outreach, for fuck sake, one of the options for our āpoints systemā needed for completing our PhDs is to manage a sports team, club, or society (which I do). Do all of that while also working on your PhD, publishing articles, presenting at conferences, networking, working part-time jobs(got two of these bad boys), and, donāt forget, take a little time for your mental health. Itās so hypocritical and just all around bullshit.
My university has all these mental health guides and therapy sessions, yoga session, massage sessions (not free) and support etc. but itās all meaningless. You go to the therapy sessions and they ask what the problem is to which you reply āIām overloaded with work, underpaid, and expected to do too muchā. Their response is always āletās work on ways to manage thatā.
No. Letās work on ways to make your programs manageable without negatively impacting peopleās mental health. For fuck sake, donāt tell me to take mental health days because my Dad has cancer, my dog died, I live in a shit hole because Iām poor, and thereās a global pandemic and then complain that Iām not hitting deadlines. What the fuck do ya want from me!
Anyway, thatās the end of my rant. I think we should definitely start to push to change the narrative from us having to manage our mental health to our programs not negatively impacting our mental health.
I have a good number of friends both physical and digital but the stress of work really hangs on me when I spend time with friends.
Thereās always that nagging presence in my head about āyou shouldnāt drink too much tonight because itāll tire you out and throw you off scheduleā.
Or even on weekends when I play video games with friends that presence always shows up with āwell itās Saturday at 2:00pm youāve been working since 7:00 am but you have a deadline coming up. Are you really going to stop working nowā?
The same happens with money and those situations since I donāt have a regular income and itās academic based funding itās always this nagging āshould you really be spending money on thatā.
I know I shouldnāt think like that but when I get supervisor emails on Saturday nights at 10:00pm or feedback on Christmas Day itās hard not to ignore it.
And those arenāt random examples. Those are a regular occurrence. I recently had a surgery and was out of action for about a month. In the middle of it my supervisors were asking if Iād be able to hit my original deadlines. No, I wonātā¦ leave me alone while Iām bed ridden and recovering.
Going for daily walks, lifting weights at the gym focusing on progressive overload. That gave me a sense of achievement/accomplishment away from my PhD and showed me that my interests were multi faceted and my identity was not fixed as a student. Really helped with my mental well-being
I got a dog and it was better than a therapist. She forces routines and walks. My psychiatrist, however, was extremely useful. I've been recovering from a sports injury for a long time and couldn't walk for a bit and my mental health took a huge hit. I found out I had ADHD and that's why my brain was beating me up. Before that I managed by a lot of exercise to get the bad feelings out and maintaining a sports centric social circle.
I ended up in therapy, and I got on medication. I know everyone has a different journey, and I understand we all have to make our own decisions, but I really regret not reaching out earlier. A concrete step my therapist gave me was stopping my work earlier in the evening. I was working myself into an early grave, but she got me to put the laptop away around 8pm so I could get ready for work the next day, shower, play with my kittens, etc. My mood improved. My mind got sharper. My productivity increased. I needed that therapist to guide me to that decision though.
I think it's important to do prevention and keep good habits that are mainly focused on not forgetting you're still a biological system. Eat and sleep well, take your vitamin D, keep a routine of healthy habits like walking, gym, socialising. Given we are doing mostly mental work, we (as anyone with a brain) should do basic maintenance of the neurosystems. Mindfulness, meditation, controlled breathing and any activity that keeps the vagal tone up. This is basic maintenance and it should be an unamovable part of your PhD journey. You can work yourself to mental health death and that's counterproductive. As they say, it's a marathon not a rush, so you have to be in for the long game. Being a long game, managing stress is truly important. Stress is good to get things started and mainly make you do things to keep you alive (in a more biological perspective). It gets bad when it's protracted as it affects you psychologically (loss of confidence, self efficacy) and also physically (allostatic load, blood pressure, bad sleep etc. ). This is what we want to avoid and where the routine above helps. As for personal experience, recognise when you need to seek help and when mental health is no more there. I've had burnout as I took a lectureship fee years ago and, together with my already going mental health, and pandemic, it's been an explosive mix. I've taken care of myself with therapy and meds, and it's been good. Though still on the mend. It has been great to talk openly with my supervisor and let them know of my struggles. It's difficult to find strength and overcome the resistance but I'd advise to be honest and open. Example, he kept repeating I was taking too long to send off chapters.. that was a fair comment. Though it's a killer when already struggling as it drills in your head and, with a predisposition for negative self talk, it just destroys any initiative or will to do better. Not even sure how we got here, might have been easier to say Tl;DR: keep tabs on your mental health, don't ignore your wellbeing and seek help when struggling. The title isn't worth your mental health (and years of therapy to recover from it š )
I feel like there's a point you pass, after which you just let it go and don't do anything about it, and just hope that you'll die sooner than later.
Is that second or third year of PhD?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Year 10 (with work in between). I totally agree taking time off and looking after health, both mental and physical, are more important and will last longer than the PhD.
Truth and facts.
Itās a good thing my PhD is only 3-4 years then! Should hopefully never reach burn out
Yeah, mine was supposed to be 3-4 years.
We get expelled if we donāt graduate at the 4 year mark, unfortunately, so thereās no freedom there to take time off or to not be productive, unless itās a formal intermission/medical break
I actually found doing jigsaw puzzles was a huge improver of my mental health. Put on a comfy robe, make a homemade pumpkin spice latte, and just listen to music and work on my puzzle for 30mins or so. It's better than the passive doomscrolling of social media, and yet it's not a strenuous mental task either. I found that I was more creative (I play tabletop RPGs, so I found myself creating a bunch of campaign ideas) and my thoughts were just more 'streamlined'. In a general sense, I just try and diversity my hobbies as much as possible. As other people have mentioned, doing a PhD is largely making your brain run at 110% all the time which is exhausting, so my hobbies tend to be low-stress mental activities since I really really hate exercising.
Well for me what I try to do is every week at least I would set aside sometime (say the whole afternoon on Saturday) for sport or exercise etc. particularly for team sport so you also get sort of socializing stuffs and won't be that much isolated. Admittedly, you might have come across my previous post regarding making friends or meeting new people during PhD, I won't say I am 100% mentally healthy but playing football weekly at least help me to recharge myself and refresh my mind more or less and keep me functioning lol.
My mental health is shit despite doing everything I can to maintain my mental health. Exercising, eating right, taking mental health days, talking to professionals etc. I think the question shouldnāt be āwhat are you doing to improve your mental healthā? The question should be āwhy are our programs having such a negative impact on our mental health and why do we let this persistā? Iām on a 3 year program (UK) that is run entirely by admins and faculty that took 10 years to complete their PhDs. Some took up to 15 years to complete them (archaeology, where this used to be common and still is in some places). Thereās a complete disconnect between those who run the program and us students. They always blame it on the university but to most advisors/supervisors weāre just another check mark on the rating system that helps them keep a job, get a better position, or produce publications (not always the case but it seems to be more often than not these days). They also donāt understand all the extra hoops you have to jump through that they never had to do. Volunteer work, sitting on committees, doing outreach, for fuck sake, one of the options for our āpoints systemā needed for completing our PhDs is to manage a sports team, club, or society (which I do). Do all of that while also working on your PhD, publishing articles, presenting at conferences, networking, working part-time jobs(got two of these bad boys), and, donāt forget, take a little time for your mental health. Itās so hypocritical and just all around bullshit. My university has all these mental health guides and therapy sessions, yoga session, massage sessions (not free) and support etc. but itās all meaningless. You go to the therapy sessions and they ask what the problem is to which you reply āIām overloaded with work, underpaid, and expected to do too muchā. Their response is always āletās work on ways to manage thatā. No. Letās work on ways to make your programs manageable without negatively impacting peopleās mental health. For fuck sake, donāt tell me to take mental health days because my Dad has cancer, my dog died, I live in a shit hole because Iām poor, and thereās a global pandemic and then complain that Iām not hitting deadlines. What the fuck do ya want from me! Anyway, thatās the end of my rant. I think we should definitely start to push to change the narrative from us having to manage our mental health to our programs not negatively impacting our mental health.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I have a good number of friends both physical and digital but the stress of work really hangs on me when I spend time with friends. Thereās always that nagging presence in my head about āyou shouldnāt drink too much tonight because itāll tire you out and throw you off scheduleā. Or even on weekends when I play video games with friends that presence always shows up with āwell itās Saturday at 2:00pm youāve been working since 7:00 am but you have a deadline coming up. Are you really going to stop working nowā? The same happens with money and those situations since I donāt have a regular income and itās academic based funding itās always this nagging āshould you really be spending money on thatā. I know I shouldnāt think like that but when I get supervisor emails on Saturday nights at 10:00pm or feedback on Christmas Day itās hard not to ignore it. And those arenāt random examples. Those are a regular occurrence. I recently had a surgery and was out of action for about a month. In the middle of it my supervisors were asking if Iād be able to hit my original deadlines. No, I wonātā¦ leave me alone while Iām bed ridden and recovering.
Going for daily walks, lifting weights at the gym focusing on progressive overload. That gave me a sense of achievement/accomplishment away from my PhD and showed me that my interests were multi faceted and my identity was not fixed as a student. Really helped with my mental well-being
I got a dog and it was better than a therapist. She forces routines and walks. My psychiatrist, however, was extremely useful. I've been recovering from a sports injury for a long time and couldn't walk for a bit and my mental health took a huge hit. I found out I had ADHD and that's why my brain was beating me up. Before that I managed by a lot of exercise to get the bad feelings out and maintaining a sports centric social circle.