Grad School and Mental Health

[ERR_Alpha]

So I've been to various doctors since the beginning of graduate school for various (seemingly unrelated) issues. At my last visit, she had me fill out the depression/anxiety test. Questions like "how many days do you feel stress?" "How often do you worry about school/work?" So obviously I didn't lie... She told me I have "mild situational depression" and that EVERY GRAD STUDENT she's ever talked to will have it. (Wtf?)

So two questions:

1) do you think this is legitimate? Does most every graduate student have this? Or is it just over diagnosed medical jargon?

2) has anyon ever been told they had depression but didn't actually feel depressed? I feel fine on a day to day basis, but my doctor thinks my depression is causing my health issues. Only problem is I have no idea how to tackle a problem that I don't know exists...

Thanks guys!

[_kita]

1. No way that's legitimate. I'm worried about the materials and scale that she's using. "How often do you worry about your school/work life?" Always, doesn't mean I'm depressed. It means I have an anxious brain that thinks up stuff while I'm asleep. Those scales are often slanted and misrepresented. It looks more like an anxiety scale than a depression one. And yes, most grad students have some type of anxious personality. Not disorder, personality. It helps us make deadlines. 

 

'Mild situational depression' means that you have a mild adjustment disorder and are not adapting well to the change in your life circumstance. According to that, you have a mild trauma from leaving your old life and going to college. Umm, no, not every grad student has a traumatic situation going into college.

 

2. I know a lot of people who are told that. Mainly, it's because they have no known cause for the problems, and the doctors assume that the physical ailments have to be psychosomatic. That is not always the case. I know many people with migraine disorders, skeletalmuscular disorders, etc., that are not found when the person is in their 20's. So they're creaky, achy, or brain feels like it's going to explode, but there's no physical cause identified. 

[iphi]

From the book: What is Graduate School Like?

"A study... that, on a standardized scale where 100 points equaled the amount of stress experienced by someone whose spouse had just died, doctoral students in their first year scored an average of 313 points." Only 6 percent of the students were considered to be "below crisis level," and the other 94 percent were all experiencing "crisis" levels of stress."

[artsy16]

The key word in the diagnosis is situational. Situational means there are specific environmental factors (in your case, graduate school) that are causing significant stress/anxiety/depression. Counsellors can only go on what you tell them and where the field is at currently. Situational depression is not like clinical, generalized depression, meaning your mood will improve once you're no longer in that environment (and you don't have to feel depressed EVERY day to have situational depression, or generalized for that matter). In a way it's similar to Seasonal Affective Disorder. It doesn't mean you're "not adjusting".

You don't have to listen to that counselor. You can seek a second opinion or discontinue treatment; you're always in control.

*I'm speaking as a psych major and a mental health specialist at a psychiatric program for teens/young adults.

Edited June 7, 2015 by artsy16

[ERR_Alpha]

Thanks everyone. Basically, I'm capable of sleeping 12+ hours at once (which I manage to do on the weekends) and I always wake up groggy and tired. I'm having a hard time focusing, my short term memory is horrible. I've also had digestive issues which have led to no diagnosis. The woman who gave me this diagnosis is a medical doctor - not a mental health person. I have a psychological evaluation tomorrow. She's sure it's because I never adjusted properly to grad school. I just feel lost because I've been trying to eat right, exercise more, and spend more quality time with my boyfriend and my friends but nothing really seems to be helping the physical symptoms. It's hard because I don't necessarily feel depressed so I don't know what to do.

[Sarochan]

Well, speaking as someone with depression, that honestly sounds a lot like me sometimes (especially the sleep/digestive issues). Of course, I'm not saying that you definitely have depression! Just sharing some of my experiences with depression, and the more visceral symptoms it can cause.

In any case, whatever the cause, I hope that you feel better soon.

[random_grad]

"EVERY GRAD STUDENT she's ever talked to will have it."

 

This clearly leaves out those who don't have medical issues i.e. those whom this doctor never talked to.

Edited June 8, 2015 by random_grad

[St Andrews Lynx]

It might be an issue that you aren't getting all the vitamins you need, especially if you have a digestive issue (which could mean it is harder for you body to absorb nutrients). Deficiencies in iron and B-vitamins can certainly lead to lethargy and poor concentration. 

[_kita]

Thanks everyone. Basically, I'm capable of sleeping 12+ hours at once (which I manage to do on the weekends) and I always wake up groggy and tired. I'm having a hard time focusing, my short term memory is horrible. I've also had digestive issues which have led to no diagnosis. The woman who gave me this diagnosis is a medical doctor - not a mental health person. I have a psychological evaluation tomorrow. She's sure it's because I never adjusted properly to grad school. I just feel lost because I've been trying to eat right, exercise more, and spend more quality time with my boyfriend and my friends but nothing really seems to be helping the physical symptoms. It's hard because I don't necessarily feel depressed so I don't know what to do.

 

By chance, did you get a full chem panel done? It looks like a similar problem to what I have. When I mentioned my symptoms, my practitioner said that it looked like it may be depression, but he wanted to rule out any other concerns first. After the panel, I was found to have lymphopenia (low white blood cell count) and low red cell anemia. So I realize that a lot of that digestive/over sleep issue is my body fighting off possible infections. I've learned, when I care about it, to monitor my food intake, eat a ton of iron foods, and I will crash and need 10 hours of sleep one day. I just learned to schedule it.  

[dr. t]

Thanks everyone. Basically, I'm capable of sleeping 12+ hours at once (which I manage to do on the weekends) and I always wake up groggy and tired. I'm having a hard time focusing, my short term memory is horrible. I've also had digestive issues which have led to no diagnosis. The woman who gave me this diagnosis is a medical doctor - not a mental health person. I have a psychological evaluation tomorrow. She's sure it's because I never adjusted properly to grad school. I just feel lost because I've been trying to eat right, exercise more, and spend more quality time with my boyfriend and my friends but nothing really seems to be helping the physical symptoms. It's hard because I don't necessarily feel depressed so I don't know what to do.

 

To be fair, these sound like symptoms of depression as I have experienced it.

[ERR_Alpha]

By chance, did you get a full chem panel done? It looks like a similar problem to what I have. When I mentioned my symptoms, my practitioner said that it looked like it may be depression, but he wanted to rule out any other concerns first. After the panel, I was found to have lymphopenia (low white blood cell count) and low red cell anemia. So I realize that a lot of that digestive/over sleep issue is my body fighting off possible infections. I've learned, when I care about it, to monitor my food intake, eat a ton of iron foods, and I will crash and need 10 hours of sleep one day. I just learned to schedule it.

She did a full metabolic panel and nothing is alarming. I've gone through the ringer with the GI people and they've ruled out Crohns/Celiacs/Colitis. I'm just worried that there's something people or missing... Or that I'm crazy and that it really is all in my head.

[ERR_Alpha]

To be fair, these sound like symptoms of depression as I have experienced it.

Yeah, I understand. I just don't "feel depressed" I guess, maybe I'm wrong. I had my evaluation and she said it could go either way... I'm on a wait list for an appointment. I'm hoping a psychologist may be able to shed some light on my situation.

[dr. t]

Yeah, I understand. I just don't "feel depressed" I guess, maybe I'm wrong.

 

For what it's worth, I have never felt depressed. In fact, on my worst days, I felt very little at all, except perhaps annoyance at having to get up and eat food.

[ERR_Alpha]

For what it's worth, I have never felt depressed. In fact, on my worst days, I felt very little at all, except perhaps annoyance at having to get up and eat food.

I definitely feel this. On weekends I'm just like "meh, my bed is so comfortable" if I didn't have my boyfriend dragging me out to do things I would likely stay in bed all day.

[Cheshire_Cat]

Reading this thread makes me think I have "mild situational depression"

The situation being my job.  It's also giving me headaches.

I should probably take a break before going into the grad program.  But then I'll be stressed about money...

[psycgrad37]

I would get a second opinion if possible.

 

While I'm on here, I'll go ahead and jump in with a question. For those of you who suffer from anxiety, did grad school exacerbate that or did it stay at about the same levels? What are some things you do for self-care?

[Humulus_lupulus]

Keep in mind, depression isn't an overwhelming sadness like they make it seem. It's more a lack of really caring or any sort of feeling at all. Your symptoms sound pretty familiar based on my own experiences. Do go see a counselor, but if you go to your school's counseling center, make sure you request an experienced counselor, not an intern. You may need to wait a little longer but it is worth it.

[Sarochan]

Keep in mind, depression isn't an overwhelming sadness like they make it seem. It's more a lack of really caring or any sort of feeling at all. Your symptoms sound pretty familiar based on my own experiences. Do go see a counselor, but if you go to your school's counseling center, make sure you request an experienced counselor, not an intern. You may need to wait a little longer but it is worth it.

While I agree that depression is not solely overwhelming sadness, it definitely is a symptom of depression. There are a wide range of symptoms associated with depression, and some of them are sadness/melancholy/despondency and the like.

[_kita]

I would get a second opinion if possible.

 

While I'm on here, I'll go ahead and jump in with a question. For those of you who suffer from anxiety, did grad school exacerbate that or did it stay at about the same levels? What are some things you do for self-care?

 

Without making sure to balance your life, and attending to self-care, yes grad school makes it worse. With constantly new stress every few weeks, deadlines to make, research expectations, etc., grad school is full of enough stress to make a non-anxious person stressed out. 

 

One of my first-step, self-care techniques is to be a ridiculous over-planner. I like to make lists and schedules. I know I won't follow them, but I make them anyways. My schedules are made to have deadlines in a week ahead of time. That way, I'll conduct my lit review early, stress about the deadline, and still have time to complete it in the end.

 

I also have a comfortable home to come back to. That's key for me. I have two cats that greet me at the door and secure my lab as soon as possible. I might read, play some keyboard, or watch television. Plus, knowing that I can only get myself up early about 3 days before I crash, I plan on that. I organize my activities based on my sleep schedule. So, once during the week, I'll go to bed super early, and usually plan needing to move until 10:30 am at the latest on the weekends.

 

I also participate in something called a farm share. Where, when my loans come on, I buy into the season for fresh produce. It forces me to eat healthier, and schedule meals/cooking throughout the week. Plus, then I don't need to worry about food coming in when I have less money in the bank. My boyfriend picks up the meat and starch bill, I pick up any fruits. 

 

Really, self-care is find out how your body works. What are your food/health/recreational needs. I'm a homebody, so am content with staying in throughout the semester. And I find making schedules calming. 

[ashiepoo72]

I had depression before I started my MA and school was one of the few things that felt good. I love what I do, enjoy the work and made lots of great friends in the program who I looked forward to seeing each day. The problem was when I let the stressors in my personal life get out of hand. This exacerbated the normal stress most graduate students feel into an almost panic mode for me. I think it's important to have good work-life balance as others have said, and to make sure and address any problems in your personal life quickly. Even if I can't fix everything right away, I know that beginning the process of dealing with personal issues helps me maintain my emotional health, and this really improves how I feel about school.

I once let everything go when I was working on a huge project (ended up being my writing sample so it was a big deal for me to get it right), and after several weeks of non-stop research in the archives and sitting in front of a microfilm machine, I made myself physically ill. Shortly after I returned the microfilm, my anxiety manifested physically to the point where I thought I was dying (this is fairly common with anxiety), I experienced almost full-body numbness and went to the ER where they found nothing that would indicate a physical problem. I learned a hard lesson on not letting stuff go in my personal life and masking it with work, because the time it took me to recover actually took away from my ability to work. Once you find your balance, you become more productive AND healthy.

[ERR_Alpha]

I have my first appointment counseling at 2, but of course it's with a doctoral intern. I'm trying to keep an open mind but I really don't know how this is going to help me. I'm going to emphasize the apathy, hopefully they can suggest something.

[ERR_Alpha]

Update for anyone who cares: Meeting with a grad student was actually nice because she understood certain stress was inherent to school. I didn't score on depression at all. She suspects that it's a sleep issue possibly tied to grad school stress. I feel a lot better.

[psycgrad37]

Glad you're feeling better! 

[when]

Update for anyone who cares: Meeting with a grad student was actually nice because she understood certain stress was inherent to school. I didn't score on depression at all. She suspects that it's a sleep issue possibly tied to grad school stress. I feel a lot better.

Glad to hear that! I was going to offer that any potential labels for whatever it is you're going through are less important than trying to treat it. You don't always need a specific diagnosis to be successful in therapy; you just need someone to understand exactly what's going on with you, how those things might be interrelated, what you think and feel etc., and then you can start to make connections, gain some new insights and perspectives, problem solve, set goals etc. And I'm sure some doctoral students aren't that great, but many I know are also amazing. In any case, the biggest agent of change seems to be how well a therapist "gets" their patient/client rather than their level of skill in any kind of therapeutic technique.

 

I wish you the best!

[kaswing]

I'm really glad to hear this good news! Thanks for bringing up this subject as well. I'm moving for grad school I'm a month and a half, and I want to be as prepared as possible. I have a history of depression and have been doing well lately, so I want to be sure that I remain healthy! I enjoyed reading about what others do to keep themselves balanced, and it was helpful to note that switching therapists to one who understands your situation better can be helpful! I wanted to see what else I can learn from you all about managing consistent stress. The cats are a great idea-- I'm considering pets as well. Anyone else have thoughts? It's been a few years since I got my masters, and I've grown a lot, but boy, that did not go well in the stress department!

I also wanted to add that when my dad was in grad school, he suffered from chronic, excruciating jaw pain. Like, pull over on the side of the road because you can't see pain. None of his doctors could figure out what it was, because there was nothing physical going wrong, and finally, they diagnosed it as stress. He said he didn't believe it until he did what they told him and it worked. Remembering that stress can do that has helped me remember to manage it, rather than accept and identify with it, and also helps me remember to calm down when I feel my jaw ache