Watch the full interview on Youtube.
As a Ph.D. student or postdoc, have you ever felt anxious or depressed? Are you attempting to navigate the murky waters of academia with pre-existing mental health conditions? I’m here to tell you that you are not an anomaly and definitely not alone. Dealing with mental health conditions on top of the rigors of academic research can be overwhelming, but there are amazing resources available to offer support. One such resource is PhD Balance. This resource is especially important now as the isolation and uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic can exacerbate pre-existing mental health conditions. I recently had the opportunity to chat with the founder and CEO of PhD Balance, Susanna Harris, a graduate student of Microbiology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Susanna tells me she was horrified when she read a 2018 Nature Biotechnology paper that found 40% of graduate students were dealing with symptoms of anxiety or depression. “I was surprised, but also relieved that I wasn’t the only person. I had been dealing with depression and anxiety during my graduate program and I wished that this study had been done earlier.” Upon digging deeper, she found that there had been other studies over the past decade, but nobody seemed to be talking about them. This inspired her to start Ph.D. balance or PhDepression as it was first known, because in her own words, “I was a Ph.D. student with depression!” She started an Instagram account as a personal exercise, hoping for one or two stories a week and did not expect it to take off the way it has.
PhD Balance is an inspiring website because academics with diverse mental health issues are openly honest about their struggles. It is a platform for people to discuss their experiences, and also serves as a source of solace for people struggling in isolation. So why are people willing to be so open on a public platform? In Susanna’s opinion, “I think it is easier to speak when you realize that the people around you might understand. For every person who speaks, multiple people hear that, and they then feel able to speak. I do think that social media has helped a lot.”
For every person who speaks, multiple people hear that, and they then feel able to speak.
Many people develop mental health issues over the course of their Ph.D. or postdoc. This could either be the aggravation of previously existing conditions, or the manifestation of a predisposition towards mental health issues. Susanna believes that the root cause of this is the pressure cooker environment of academia. “Things that promote good mental health such as a strong community, a feeling of purpose, a feeling of autonomy, hope for the future, and the feeling of reward after hard work, are inherently lacking in academia.”
So, what needs to change for people to get the help they need? “Universities are trying,” says Susanna. “They are at least acknowledging that this is a problem. However, I find it frustrating that they are taking a year to do a climate study and finding that between 20-40% of their students have mental health issues. You don’t have to assume that no one has depression. There is space for universities to do better. I think where universities are lacking right now is understanding that Masters or Ph.D students have very different needs and problems than undergraduates or medical students. One of the schools that are doing a great job is the University of Michigan Rackham graduate school. Over the last decade or so, it has transformed its services for graduate students.”
It’s not all on the universities though. Often, when people are stressed, they don’t take care of themselves and inadvertently allow their mental health to deteriorate. How should they be encouraged to get the help they need? “It will make you more productive in the end. People sometimes ask me how I have time to run PhD Balance. I’m probably doing more now than I have any other year in my life. I’m also at a much better place mentally because I see a therapist, I take medications, I go to the gym. This is an investment of time, but it is amazing how much time you lose when you’re struggling with a mental illness!” On a day to day basis, she recommends that people develop a good support system, exercise well, and get enough sleep. Finally, how do you educate naysayers, particularly anonymous ones on the internet? “The best thing you can do is be patient. Ask questions and try to understand where they’re coming from. If you can’t, get out of the situation!”
To people struggling with extreme stresses and those who are just curious to learn more, I would strongly recommend visiting the PhD Balance website. It has an incredible range of posts, covering topics such as depression, LGBTQIA+, and sexual assault to name a few. There are also posts specifically dealing with the mental strain of COVID-19. These posts are supplemented by resources on how to handle the stress of academia and achieve/ maintain wellness. In addition to the extensive reading material, it is possible to become part of the PhD Balance community and access forums, workshops, webinars, and their unique monthly peer support group called “Stronger Together”. I’m sure many of you will benefit from this invaluable community.
Susanna L Harris is a Ph.D. candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she studies how communities of bacteria colonize plants to increase crop growth. Susanna founded Ph.D. Balance to break the stigma around mental illness in higher education and create spaces where grad students can have open conversations around the challenges we face. She hosts and presents public speaking events about mental health, academic support, and science communication.
Author:
Swathi Lingam is a research fellow at A*Star in Singapore, where she is developing novel cell therapy systems to treat age-related eye diseases. She had been a Ph.D. student at the University of Manchester, followed by a short post-doc at the University of Oxford before moving to Singapore. She is passionate about science communication and loves doing that through her blog “The Very Curious Biochemist”. Follow her on Twitter.
Editors:
Roopsha Sengupta is the Editor-in-Chief at ClubSciWri. She did her Ph.D. at the Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, and postdoctoral research at the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge, UK, specializing in the field of Epigenetics. During her research, she was involved in many exciting discoveries and had the privilege of working and collaborating with a number of inspiring scientists. As an editor for ClubSciWri, she loves working on a wide range of topics and presenting articles coherently, while nudging authors to give their best.
Saurja Dasgupta is originally from Kolkata, India. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, where he studied the structure, function, and evolution of catalytic RNA. He is currently doing his postdoctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, where he is trying to understand the biochemical milieu that could have given birth to life on earth (and elsewhere) and reconstruct primitive cells. One of his scientific dreams is to observe the spontaneous emergence of Darwinian evolution in a chemical system. When not thinking about science, Saurja pursues his love for the written word through poetry and song-writing (and meditating on Leonard Cohen’s music). His other passions are trying to make science easier to understand, and fighting unreason and pseudoscientific thinking with a mixture of calm compassion and swashbuckling spirit.
Illustrator:
Bhrugu is passionate about communicating science in a creative way. He loves to create simple but effective write-ups and illustrations that present the scientific story in a fun and impactful manner. Have a look at his SciComm portfolio on his website; Art BY Scientist. Currently, Bhrugu is working as a postdoctoral fellow at Emory Vaccine Centre, Atlanta, USA, and trying to cure HIV/AIDS. He gets the energy to do all these different things by meditating in his soul laboratory where he attempts to bring an amalgamation of science and spirituality. Would you like to connect with him? If so, you can find him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
The contents of Club SciWri are the copyright of Ph.D. Career Support Group for STEM PhDs (A US Non-Profit 501(c)3, PhDCSG is an initiative of the alumni of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The primary aim of this group is to build a NETWORK among scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs).
This work by Club SciWri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
