Wednesday, March 21, 2018

It might not just be you

Also in this week's C&EN, an interesting set of statistics: 
41%: Percentage of graduate students with symptoms of moderate to severe anxiety, compared with 6% of general population 
39%: Percentage of graduate students with symptoms of moderate to severe depression, compared with 6% of general population
From the Nature Biotechnology article "Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education."  

10 comments:

  1. A poster at my former University in the UK... 3 out of 4 students at [University} have a mental health problem.

    Did this mean this place made you have problems, or just attracted those who already have them ?

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    1. Data split by year would answer this question

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Way to use a gendered phrase and totally miss the big picture. Many graduate students, particularly in the sciences, do not have good control over their schedule because their PIs have too much power over them. The PIs would rather treat their students like robots instead of like people.

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    2. Wow, excellent response Unknown (9:25 AM). Why haven't more people thought of that...I mean, it's easy just "man up" or "take it easy" - simple solution. And this is why these issues will not be taken seriously yet - unfortunately, this isn't a one-off opinion.

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    3. You may have just solved all mental health issues!

      "Have you tried just... not being sad/anxious/depressed?"

      Such an amazingly simple solution!

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    4. Step 1. Be a man.
      Step 2. Acquire many PhD's.
      Step 3. Get employed. (Does this also require manning-up?)
      Step 4. Profit??

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  3. Depressed Grad Student Playlist

    "I Am a Rock" - Simon and Garfunkel
    "Still I'm Sad" - The Yardbirds
    "I'm Down" - The Beatles
    "Hazy Shade of Winter" - Simon and Garfunkel
    "Cry" - Johnnie Ray
    "Paint It Black" - Rolling Stones
    "Eve of Destruction" - Barry McGuire
    "Under Pressure" - David Bowie and Queen
    "Crying" - Roy Orbison
    "Alone Again" - Gilbert O'Sullivan




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    1. You forgot "Low Self-Esteem" by the Offspring. Maybe something by Poison Idea. Lots of Bob Mould ("Black Sheets of Rain").

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  4. Check out the new @ph_d_epression Instagram and Twitter pages! We started the pages just for the purpose of spreading awareness and visibility for this problem!

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20