Depression and academia

Graduate school can be a horribly depressing place.  And for those who make it to a tenure track job, the outlook can be equally as bleak.  Those in the coaching industry can be guilty of attempting to just jollying up clients.  Cheerleading can be great, but it is not a fix for real depression of the sort that over half (!!) of graduate students are struggling with.

Studies have found that graduate school is not a particularly healthy place. At the University of California at Berkeley, 67 percent of graduate students said they had felt hopeless at least once in the last year; 54 percent felt so depressed they had a hard time functioning; and nearly 10 percent said they had considered suicide, a 2004 survey found. By comparison, an estimated 9.5 percent of American adults suffer from depressive disorders in a given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of the graduate students surveyed were not aware of mental-health services on the campus. And another Berkeley study recently found that graduate students were becoming increasingly disillusioned with careers in academe and did not view large research institutions as family-friendly workplaces (The Chronicle, January 23)

Why do you think graduate school is such a ripe place for depression?

What to do if you are coping with depression?   (1) You can take a screening test here, but also (1) see your doctor.   Just your regular old primary care physician can be a great resource.  Most campuses also have FREE psychological services.  They may not offer long-term care and they may not allow enough sessions with a therapist to get you through to the other side of depression, but they're an excellent place to start.  If you're comfortable, ask around.  I bet a large percentage of your grad school comrades have also coped with feelings of hopelessness or jags of depression.  Some of them may have gotten some help.  They are great resources.  Those of you (that would be most of you) who have coped with depression, how did you manage?  What resources did you draw on?  Did your university help or make it worse?

The DIY Courtier wrote this fantastic blog post called "21 Tips to Keep Your Shit Together When You’re Depressed."  I love how it's both realistic about the paralysis that can come with depression and rich with great ideas on tiny little steps you may want to try.  Here are some of my favorites:

• 6)  Eat nutritionally sound, regular small meals. If you’re having trouble eating, try to focus on what you’d like to eat. I went through a whole six week episode of tomatoes and cream cheese on a bagel twice a day. Not great, but it was something 
• 10)  Face a window as often as you can – at work, at home. Look out into the world. Watch. Observe. Try to find something you find pretty or interesting to focus on. And, handily remember that one in five of those people out there feel the way you do.
• 19)  Depression will lie to you. Depression will try to tell you what others are thinking.  That you are unloved and unworthy, that others think little of you or don’t care – or even wish you harm. You are not a psychic. Keep repeating that. “I am not a psychic”.  Repeat. The only way to know what another person is thinking is to up and ask them.

But her whole post is great!  And it's a fantastic reminder that depression can not be fixed by pasting a smile on your face.  It certainly can not be fixed by just jollying up.  I've had lots of clients who work with me as a dissertation coach while at the same time working with a therapist as their mental health professional.  Work with the former is often not really realistic until they're working with the later.  Take care of yourselves out there.