«
»

Mental Health and Graduate Studies

There has been a lot of comment on social media about a recent article in Nature about the mental health of graduate students and the numbers looking for treatment. There are many sources of stress that can have a negative effect on mental health, including financial pressures and poor accommodation to name but two. These aren’t really specific to graduate studies. One that is is the pressure to produce results. That actually continues throughout an academic career – burnout is a very real phenomenon – but it’s probably worse during the “apprenticeship” phase when one is inexperienced and still learning the trade.

“Productivity” is indeed important but should not be interpreted as having to work ridiculously long hours. I remember many years ago commenting on an article that claimed 80-100 hours a week was not unusual. There are people who can sit at their desks for 12 hours a day without producing anything very much at all. It’s not the hours that matter, but what you do with them. In no way will indulging your outside interests (sporting, cultural, political, or “other”…),  or simply relaxing, detract from your ability to do research. As a matter of fact, I think such diversions actually improve your work, as well as (of course) your general well-being.

I think it is fair to say that you have to work hard to do a PhD. I worked hard on mine back in the day. But don’t think that means it has to be a grim slog. I can only speak for myself, but I greatly enjoyed my time as a graduate student. I think this was at least in part because when I was doing my PhD I had plenty of outside interests (including music, sport and (ahem) “nightlife”)  and took time out regularly to indulge them. I did experience mental health problems later during my PhD, but these were not caused by being a research student.

I can think of many times during my graduate studies when I was completely stuck on a problem – to the extent that it was seriously bothering me. On such occasions I learned to take a break. I often found that going for a walk, doing a crossword, or just trying to think about something else for a while, allowed me to return to the problem fresher and with new ideas. I think the brain gets into a rut if you try to make it work in one mode all the time.

There were indeed many times during my time as a research student – and have been since – that I worked extremely long hours – all night sometimes. I wouldn’t say exactly that was because I “enjoyed” it, but that I wanted to know an answer and couldn’t get the problem out of my head.  I’ve stayed up into the early hours of the morning trying to finish a crossword too. Not because I had to, but because I couldn’t put it down unfinished. I know that makes me a saddo in many minds, but I think that’s the sort of obsessiveness and tenacity a researcher needs: becoming so absorbed by the task in hand that you don’t notice the passage of time.

I don’t think anyone should try to infer too much from these personal reflections, but I do think there’s one important point that I try to point to every graduate student I advise and that is to look after your mental health. Perhaps the Nature article has a positive side, in that at least graduate students are seeking help. Recognizing that you might have a problem is a very important first step.

This entry was posted on October 3, 2024 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Biographical, Mental Health with tags , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Mental Health and Graduate Studies”

  1. Jarle Brinchmann's avatar
    Jarle Brinchmann Says:
    October 4, 2024 at 9:16 am

    You might want to put a ‘not’ in the ‘“Productivity” is indeed important but should be interpreted’

    😀

    Reply
  2. Mark's avatar
    Mark Says:
    October 4, 2024 at 9:51 am

    I was lucky that as a PhD student several professors in the group gave some valuable advice:

    1. If all you do is physics, no-one will talk to you at parties.
    2. Instead of working all evening into the small hours, go and do something else and you will find you solve that problem straight away after a good nights sleep.
    Reply
  3. Anton Garrett's avatar
    Anton Garrett Says:
    October 4, 2024 at 11:36 am

    You have to be motivated in order to do research. You have to love your subject. Then the long hours come naturally. If you are not motivated, conversely, you won’t get far in research.

    As for inspiration, you (Peter) have found the right way – load up your mind, then forget about it and sleep on it. This was described in 1939 in a booklet by one James Wood Young:

    https://perpustakaan.unaim-wamena.ac.id/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/A-TECHNIQUES-FOR-PRODUCING-IDEAS-James-Young.pdf

    Chapter 11 of the Sleep-Walker book (“Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker), which I think you’ve mentioned on this blog, has more about this – it is about recombining ideas in new ways.

    Reply
  4. John Simmons's avatar
    John Simmons Says:
    October 8, 2024 at 10:11 am

    Overall I found doing a PhD a great experience. There were some fraught times, for example in the very beginning transitioning from being a undergraduate student where feed and learnt ideas in courses to pass exams, to learning how to work independently to find ideas. I remember quite a lot of people dropping out in that first year, and having a good supervisor is particularly important at that stage. Then at the end, quite manic working long hours writing up, and walking the six miles or so home to Ilford in the early hours of the morning. Inbetween some good social life, for two or three years was particularly close to a small group that included a person that will hopefully become my future wife. Playing five-side football, and regularly going out for lockins at the local EastEnd pubs with the other postgrads. Poor but miles more fun, than the grind of being a software engineer in Industry that I became later.

    What didn’t realise until recently is that doing a PhD in the states is much different to that in the UK and Europe. There is a big, difficult formal exams component as well as completing original research. I am not sure if would have been attracted to doing a Ph. D. if it was like this for me. I speculate that it is like this because spending money on completely blue sky research is not attractive to US politicians, and the exams are training for jobs in applied research in Government Research Labs, for the quite large number of students who don’t think they will make it to Tenured positions. I don’t really know why US Ph. D’s are like this though.

    Reply

Leave a comment