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Common problem.
47% of PhD students met criteria that classified them as depressed.
Unfortunately, this is not an April Fool’s joke.
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Not easy to cope.
Taking care of yourself can be really challenging while doing your PhD. All of us experience chronic stress due to experiments not working, failure to meet your goals, disappointment and fear surrounding your career and impostor syndrome, just to name a few.
When we experience several of them repeatedly it’s hard to process this frustration and stress in a healthy way, and it can feel overwhelming. This can eventually lead to depression.
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First step: being aware.
PhD students have a high risk of developing a psychiatric disorder. In fact, this risk is 2.43 times higher in PhD students compared to the highly educated general population. Additionally, females and gender-nonconforming PhD students are significantly more likely to experience anxiety and depression than their male graduate counterparts. However, men are less likely to seek professional or interpersonal help. The high risk in academia, especially for PhD students has been studied and recognized in the US, UK and Belgium. Major scientific journals like Science and Nature have already called out this phenomenon and it has been written about in The Guardian.
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We are all there.
Finding yourself somewhere on this path is extremely normal and independent of age or background. We want to open the debate about mental health, and how to take care of yourself, while doing your PhD.
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Help is coming!
If you would like to contact the counselor (and get an appointment for free!!) click the link below.
Learn more
Next up:
What can lead to depression and psychological distress in your PhD?
