 |
| I'm finished (Photo: Thai Jasmine) |
You might have chosen to take a look at this blog because you are currently feeling overwhelmed by your PhD, or perhaps you just know of someone who is.
Why is it, you might be asking yourself, that very bright, talented individuals clutching phenomenal CVs and apparently facing a world of opportunities, are suffering constant self-doubt, depression, anxiety and burnout?
From what I've seen, it doesn't matter much what discipline you belong to or which university you go to when it comes to developing chronic unhappiness.
Over almost three years spent at one of UK's most prestigious universities, I have travelled to conferences, participated in summer schools and attended lectures at other institutions, and I've seen the same thing again and again: diversely talented young people, allegedly doing exactly what they want, among equally motivated peers, who are not enjoying the freedom and fulfilment that a PhD should bring with it.
Why? And what can we do about it?
Why PhD students are sad
There are many factors that drive PhD students into unhappiness: from ill-defined topics and incomplete data sets to supervisors who do not seem to care about their students, or provide feedback that is so vague or unconstructive that it kills all motivation and creativity.
Financial difficulties and self-absorbed colleagues don't help, either. And finally there is the over-arching question of whether all that time and effort will ever "pay off".
But should these problems lead PhD students to identify themselves as failures or frauds? Why are they affecting their physical and mental health?
(If you don't believe me, just ask any PhD student whether they actually believe they "ought to be" where they are with their project, or when was the last time they enjoyed a weekend without that little voice inside their head telling them that actually they should be working).
I don't want to paint a completely black picture or focus only on the difficulties here. There are students who manage to enjoy writing a PhD, and not only in retrospect once they're completing the acknowledgements. So what do they do differently?
Though I believe universities do have an important role to play in this and should help their PhD students in many more ways than they do, it is, in the end, up to students themselves to find a way out of their situation.
I'm convinced that we can learn from each other and don't have to constantly reinvent the PhD wheel of wisdom.
A range of survival strategies
I asked around to see which tools and survival strategies had helped people. The answers were as wonderfully diverse as the individuals I talked to.
They ranged from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to meditation and yoga. Others found strength tin religion, or insights from ancient Greek philosophy, while some stressed the role that creative outlets and sports played for their motivation and health.
My misery after failing to understand an entire class on multiple regression analysis brought sound advice from a friend who asked me: "Do you even need it for your research?" When I admitted I didn't, he said: "So why do you bother? Do you really think God loves you less if you don't know about MRA?"
My friend was teaching me one of the most important tools to get through a PhD - focus. Embrace the fact that we don't and can't know everything - and that a PhD gives us the possibility to "learn for a living".
The mindfulness fans among my interviewees said focusing on the moment helps us separate our feelings about our PhDs from the task at hand. We need to identify the negative associations that have tainted the picture of it over time, and then set them to one side.
The CBT disciples had great suggestions on how a change in behaviour and thinking about ourselves might positively influence the output we produce, and the yoga-and-meditation crew convincingly argued for finding a way to connect with oneself, in order to arrive at a state of inner balance.
The sports team underlined how success comes from concentrating hard on specific targets and not stressing about long-term goals. Finally, the creative group demonstrated how important it is not to look at a computer screen all day long but to reconnect with things we liked before our PhD.
Choose what works for you
The message is clear: there are tools and techniques out there that can help us to restructure our days and reshape our attitude. We simply need to identify what works best for us individually.
But this is done much more easily if we help one another, share experiences and best practice and encourage colleagues to try new things.
And, we have to start by being honest with each other and ourselves, admit when we are struggling and then seek help.
As long as our universities choose not to devote resources to helping us, it remains up to us - current and former PhD students - to make sure we stay sane. Only then can we aim for the next step - actually enjoying our PhDs.
When we look back, we should not be thinking "I am so thankful that's over and I got out of it alive" but "that was tough, but great, and I would totally do it again".
Inez von Weitershausen is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics
No comments:
Post a Comment