Grad School and Mental Health

[ERR_Alpha]

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!

Thanks so much! This is excellent advice- my therapist really did "get" me in the brief period of time. She said how I was very in touch with my emotions and how if I was depressed I would know it- which is really what had been boggling my brain about the whole scenario.

[SymmetryOfImperfection]

think I'm going nuts. Teaching + Research is just a total pain.

[Adelaide9216]

Hello,

bumping this thread. A lot of graduate students tend to be overachievers (and I include myself in saying this). I want to apply to Ph.D. programs this year, but am afraid that ph.d programs are going to be detrimental to my mental health... (I live with mental illness but have always been able to cope through my entire studies, even during my MA program). Plus, I am the first one of my family to get a university degree, and even more so, a graduate university degree and I feel this pressure to succeed even though my family does not place this pressure on my shoulders.

Anyone else feeling the same way? 

[E-P]

@Adelaide9216 I've given some thought to this.  What I ultimately came up with is that it's going to be better for my mental health to go to grad school and finally get to research that which I want to Understand, than it will be to stay in the corporate world where I've hit a pretty solid ceiling and never really fit in.

 

Have you considered spring cleaning therapy?  E.g., seeing a therapist for a while not because you NEED it, but because you want to arm yourself with the necessary defenses in advance?

[Adelaide9216]

4 minutes ago, E-P said:

@Adelaide9216 I've given some thought to this.  What I ultimately came up with is that it's going to be better for my mental health to go to grad school and finally get to research that which I want to Understand, than it will be to stay in the corporate world where I've hit a pretty solid ceiling and never really fit in.

 

Have you considered spring cleaning therapy?  E.g., seeing a therapist for a while not because you NEED it, but because you want to arm yourself with the necessary defenses in advance?

I agree with you.

When I'm in school, I feel at peace and at my place. And I feel happy. I work hard and there is always a little bit of anxiety around school, but I've always seen positive results in my case and I have always been able to cope and manage. I guess I'm just scared of Ph.D. programs (even though I really want to do a Ph.D. and am really passionate about my topic) but I've been hearing/reading/seeing so many horror stories...The funny thing is that I've always been a A type of student. I have never truly struggled academically. I even dare to say that I find my MA program quite easy so far and the idea of writing a master's thesis is not intimidating to me. So I don't know why I am worried. Even my professors and classmates could see me pursue a Ph.D. when I was a undergraduate student and at that time, I did not even know that I wanted to do a Ph.D. I just never thought of myself studying for so long and so far. I guess it must because I don't know what to expect in a Ph.D. program. 

Seeing a therapist is a good option. I am going to re-start seeing one in the following weeks (for other reasons), but I'm sure it'll help and this is something I will be able to discuss with her. 

[Hope.for.the.best]

5 hours ago, Adelaide9216 said:

I agree with you.

When I'm in school, I feel at peace and at my place. And I feel happy. I work hard and there is always a little bit of anxiety around school, but I've always seen positive results in my case and I have always been able to cope and manage. I guess I'm just scared of Ph.D. programs (even though I really want to do a Ph.D. and am really passionate about my topic) but I've been hearing/reading/seeing so many horror stories...The funny thing is that I've always been a A type of student. I have never truly struggled academically. I even dare to say that I find my MA program quite easy so far and the idea of writing a master's thesis is not intimidating to me. So I don't know why I am worried. Even my professors and classmates could see me pursue a Ph.D. when I was a undergraduate student and at that time, I did not even know that I wanted to do a Ph.D. I just never thought of myself studying for so long and so far. I guess it must because I don't know what to expect in a Ph.D. program. 

Seeing a therapist is a good option. I am going to re-start seeing one in the following weeks (for other reasons), but I'm sure it'll help and this is something I will be able to discuss with her. 

Even though I am yet to defend my PhD, I have pretty much gone through the whole journey. I too saw and heard a lot of horror stories, like two of my friends started PhD with great passion, but then their research did not go well and they quit with a master. They are those who were very outstanding in undergrad. Another friend also had an eventful journey before he got his PhD. His marks were good enough to be accepted straight into PhD after undergrad, but he did not do well enough in the first semester that he was made to finish a master before reentering a PhD program. Somehow he chose the wrong advisor when he finished his master, and that professor was caught with academic misconduct. He had to switch to another advisor to finish his PhD dissertation. His defend was not any smoother either, in which he needed another 8 months for major revision. I was quite taken aback by these mishaps at first, but felt relieved when seeing that all students from my advisor's group got their PhDs successfully. The biggest advice here is to choose an advisor who is helpful, and has a good record of getting their students graduated. 

My background is different from you. Almost all my family members and relatives received higher education, and there are a few PhDs and professors, so I too have a pressure to succeed. I was not made to do a PhD, and I was given a lot of insights on how doing a PhD would be like. You would think that I knew what to expect in a PhD program, but my experience was totally different from anyone else in my family. Basically, you will never know what you will encounter until you get into PhD yourself!

I totally agree with checking in with a therapist regularly. I don't have any mental illnesses myself, but I have a rather strong family history of depression, so I have been seeing a psychologist for the past 10 years. My psychologist is a PhD graduate herself. I went to her before I started my PhD for some advice. She asked me to reflect on what skills I have learnt over the course of my education, which would help with my PhD studies. That has helped me put things into perspective, so you can give it a go too. Although I was terribly stressed out during the write-up period, I am glad that I progressively got better by not doing anything related to my project for 2 months. Another advice would be to take regular breaks during your studies. I can't stress the importance of annual leaves. I made the mistake of writing my dissertation over the Christmas holiday, and I was backfired with a whole year of high stress!

Note: Some advisors are as mean as my advisor, who does not like students taking long breaks. He made me come in to do volunteer work while I was waiting for my defend, which I kindly refused. Of course, I had the support of my other advisor, who asked me to take a long break after finishing my PhD dissertation, and he would hopefully be my boss for the next few years (fingers crossed). Again, it is very important to choose the right advisor!