by Luis Chacon
Looking at the statistics, around 47% of graduate students of different disciplines, reach a state considered depression [1]. Indeed, most reports on depression and mental health in students show that the most frequent response about their stress feeling is ”above average stress” or ”colossal stress”, due to factors such as feelings of loneliness, high work demands, insufficient or nonexistent support, among others. Some of these factors lead students to immediate consequences such as lack of sleep, poor nutrition or loss of self-confidence.
What is the cause? One of the principal factors is the fear of not fulfilling expectations, personal or from others, as well as marks on their academic reports and the feeling of being unreliable for the job [2]. Another factor is the accessibility of psychological services by universities and institutes, as these problems can often be seen as unrelated to the academic world and mostly as something personal.
Now the question is: what to do? While many external factors have been normalised, such as the pressure to publish, some deadlines and the accelerated rhythm we can have, there are some others that we can work on. Here is a list of some important points:
- ”Good night!”. The lack of sleeping properly can affect your performance. Not sleeping can make you feel fatigued, possible develop of insomnia and reduced concentration. Consider also to regulate your relationship with coffee and any other source of energy that can cause you tossing and turning in the night.
- ”Yuum yumm, delicious!”. A sandwich and soda is not a balanced meal, try to keep all your meals and some regular exercise on your daily life.
- ”Another one is not going to kill me”. Addictions can be a major issue, if you feel that something is going out of your hands, is good to look for help, better now than never.
- ”Eggs, milk and therapy”. Therapy is a key component for your mental health. Looking for professional help is not a shame, is a support. Sometimes you may find yourself with a crisis related to the work or not, in any case is good to have professional advice.
- ”I think I might be son of Atlas”. You don’t have to carry with everything alone. Ask for help, your colleagues would be more than happy to help you. Talk with your advisor if something is not going well or is not working.
An important point not only for students but also for advisors is that the problem of mental health is a real problem and must be handled. Showing flexibility, empathy and cooperation can make the experience of doing a PhD a beneficial situation for both the student and the professor.
Last but not least, there are many resources that deal with the issue of mental health. I would like to recommend a book which can serve as a guide or a small motivation to find the help you may need. The book is called ”Managing your Mental Health during your PhD” written by Zoe J. Ayres, in it you can find many of the facets of research that can lead to emotional problems and general advice on how to deal with the most common ones. By now, keep enjoying this amazing journey called being a PhD student!
References
[1] G. Panger. Graduate student happiness well-being report, 04 2015
[2] J. Givens and J. Tjia. Depressed medical students’ use of mental health services and barriers to use. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 77:918–21, 10 2002. doi: 10.1097/00001888-200209000-00024.