phd student stress

The Savvy Scientist

Experiences of a London PhD student and beyond

PhD Burnout: Managing Energy, Stress, Anxiety & Your Mental Health

PhDs are renowned for being stressful and when you add a global pandemic into the mix it’s no surprise that many students are struggling with their mental health. Unfortunately this can often lead to PhD fatigue which may eventually lead to burnout.

In this post we’ll explore what academic burnout is and how it comes about, then discuss some tips I picked up for managing mental health during my own PhD.

Please note that I am by no means an expert in this area. I’ve worked in seven different labs before, during and after my PhD so I have a fair idea of research stress but even so, I don’t have all the answers.

If you’re feeling burnt out or depressed and finding the pressure too much, please reach out to friends and family or give the Samaritans a call to talk things through.

Note – This post, and its follow on about maintaining PhD motivation were inspired by a reader who asked for recommendations on dealing with PhD fatigue. I love hearing from all of you, so if you have any ideas for topics which you, or others, could find useful please do let me know either in the comments section below or by getting in contact . Or just pop me a message to say hi. 🙂

This post is part of my PhD mindset series, you can check out the full series below:

• PhD Burnout: Managing Energy, Stress, Anxiety & Your Mental Health (this part!)
• PhD Motivation: How to Stay Driven From Cover Letter to Completion
• How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Studying

What is PhD Burnout?

Whenever I’ve gone anywhere near social media relating to PhDs I see overwhelmed PhD students who are some combination of overwhelmed, de-energised or depressed.

Specifically I often see Americans talking about the importance of talking through their PhD difficulties with a therapist, which I find a little alarming. It’s great to seek help but even better to avoid the need in the first place.

Sadly, none of this is unusual. As this survey shows, depression is common for PhD students and of note: at higher levels than for working professionals.

All of these feelings can be connected to academic burnout.

The World Health Organisation classifies burnout as a syndrome with symptoms of:

– Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; – Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; – Reduced professional efficacy. Symptoms of burnout as classified by the WHO. Source .

This often leads to students falling completely out of love with the topic they decided to spend years of their life researching!

The pandemic has added extra pressures and constraints which can make it even more difficult to have a well balanced and positive PhD experience. Therefore it is more important than ever to take care of yourself, so that not only can you continue to make progress in your project but also ensure you stay healthy.

What are the Stages of Burnout?

Psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North developed a 12 stage model of burnout. The following graphic by The Present Psychologist does a great job at conveying each of these.

I don’t know about you, but I can personally identify with several of the stages and it’s scary to see how they can potentially lead down a path to complete mental and physical burnout. I also think it’s interesting that neglecting needs (stage 3) happens so early on. If you check in with yourself regularly you can hopefully halt your burnout journey at that point.

PhDs can be tough but burnout isn’t an inevitability. Here are a few suggestions for how you can look after your mental health and avoid academic burnout.

Overcoming PhD Burnout

Manage your energy levels, maintaining energy levels day to day.

• Eat well and eat regularly. Try to avoid nutritionless high sugar foods which can play havoc with your energy levels. Instead aim for low GI food . Maybe I’m just getting old but I really do recommend eating some fruit and veg. My favourite book of 2021, How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reduce Disease , is well worth a read. Not a fan of veggies? Either disguise them or at least eat some fruit such as apples and bananas. Sliced apple with some peanut butter is a delicious and nutritious low GI snack. Check out my series of posts on cooking nutritious meals on a budget.
• Get enough sleep. It doesn’t take PhD-level research to realise that you need to rest properly if you want to avoid becoming exhausted! How much sleep someone needs to feel well-rested varies person to person, so I won’t prescribe that you get a specific amount, but 6-9 hours is the range typically recommended. Personally, I take getting enough sleep very seriously and try to get a minimum of 8 hours.

A side note on caffeine consumption: Do PhD students need caffeine to survive?

In a word, no!

Although a culture of caffeine consumption goes hand in hand with intense work, PhD students certainly don’t need caffeine to survive. How do I know? I didn’t have any at all during my own PhD. In fact, I wrote a whole post about it .

By all means consume as much caffeine as you want, just know that it doesn’t have to be a prerequisite for successfully completing a PhD.

Maintaining energy throughout your whole PhD

• Pace yourself. As I mention later in the post I strongly recommend treating your PhD like a normal full-time job. This means only working 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday. Doing so could help realign your stress, anxiety and depression levels with comparatively less-depressed professional workers . There will of course be times when this isn’t possible and you’ll need to work longer hours to make a certain deadline. But working long hours should not be the norm. It’s good to try and balance the workload as best you can across the whole of your PhD. For instance, I often encourage people to start writing papers earlier than they think as these can later become chapters in your thesis. It’s things like this that can help you avoid excess stress in your final year.
• Take time off to recharge. All work and no play makes for an exhausted PhD student! Make the most of opportunities to get involved with extracurricular activities (often at a discount!). I wrote a whole post about making the most of opportunities during your PhD . PhD students should have time for a social life, again I’ve written about that . Also give yourself permission to take time-off day to day for self care, whether that’s to go for a walk in nature, meet friends or binge-watch a show on Netflix. Even within a single working day I often find I’m far more efficient when I break up my work into chunks and allow myself to take time off in-between. This is also a good way to avoid procrastination!

Reduce Stress and Anxiety

During your PhD there will inevitably be times of stress. Your experiments may not be going as planned, deadlines may be coming up fast or you may find yourself pushed too far outside of your comfort zone. But if you manage your response well you’ll hopefully be able to avoid PhD burnout. I’ll say it again: stress does not need to lead to burnout!

Everyone is unique in terms of what works for them so I’d recommend writing down a list of what you find helpful when you feel stressed, anxious or sad and then you can refer to it when you next experience that feeling.

I’ve created a mental health reminders print-out to refer to when times get tough. It’s available now in the resources library (subscribe for free to get the password!).

Below are a few general suggestions to avoid PhD burnout which work for me and you may find helpful.

• Exercise. When you’re feeling down it can be tough to motivate yourself to go and exercise but I always feel much better for it afterwards. When we exercise it helps our body to adapt at dealing with stress, so getting into a good habit can work wonders for both your mental and physical health. Why not see if your uni has any unusual sports or activities you could try? I tried scuba diving and surfing while at Imperial! But remember, exercise doesn’t need to be difficult. It could just involve going for a walk around the block at lunch or taking the stairs rather than the lift.
• Cook / Bake. I appreciate that for many people cooking can be anything but relaxing, so if you don’t enjoy the pressure of cooking an actual meal perhaps give baking a go. Personally I really enjoy putting a podcast on and making food. Pinterest and Youtube can be great visual places to find new recipes.
• Let your mind relax. Switching off is a skill and I’ve found meditation a great way to help clear my mind. It’s amazing how noticeably different I can feel afterwards, having not previously been aware of how many thoughts were buzzing around! Yoga can also be another good way to relax and be present in the moment. My partner and I have been working our way through 30 Days of Yoga with Adriene on Youtube and I’d recommend it as a good way to ease yourself in. As well as being great for your mind, yoga also ticks the box for exercise!
• Read a book. I’ve previously written about the benefits of reading fiction * and I still believe it’s one of the best ways to relax. Reading allows you to immerse yourself in a different world and it’s a great way to entertain yourself during a commute.

* Wondering how I got something published in Science ? Read my guide here .

Talk It Through

• Meet with your supervisor. Don’t suffer in silence, if you’re finding yourself struggling or burned out raise this with your supervisor and they should be able to work with you to find ways to reduce the pressure. This may involve you taking some time off, delegating some of your workload, suggesting an alternative course of action or signposting you to services your university offers.

Also remember that facing PhD-related challenges can be common. I wrote a whole post about mine in case you want to cheer yourself up! We can’t control everything we encounter, but we can control our response.

A free self-care checklist is also now available in the resources library , providing ideas to stay healthy and avoid PhD burnout.

Top Tips for Avoiding PhD Burnout

On top of everything we’ve covered in the sections above, here are a few overarching tips which I think could help you to avoid PhD burnout:

• Work sensible hours . You shouldn’t feel under pressure from your supervisor or anyone else to be pulling crazy hours on a regular basis. Even if you adore your project it isn’t healthy to be forfeiting other aspects of your life such as food, sleep and friends. As a starting point I suggest treating your PhD as a 9-5 job. About a year into my PhD I shared how many hours I was working .
• Reduce your use of social media. If you feel like social media could be having a negative impact on your mental health, why not try having a break from it?
• Do things outside of your PhD . Bonus points if this includes spending time outdoors, getting exercise or spending time with friends. Basically, make sure the PhD isn’t the only thing occupying both your mental and physical ife.
• Regularly check in on how you’re feeling. If you wait until you’re truly burnt out before seeking help, it is likely to take you a long time to recover and you may even feel that dropping out is your only option. While that can be a completely valid choice I would strongly suggest to check in with yourself on a regular basis and speak to someone early on (be that your supervisor, or a friend or family member) if you find yourself struggling.

I really hope that this post has been useful for you. Nothing is more important than your mental health and PhD burnout can really disrupt that. If you’ve got any comments or suggestions which you think other PhD scholars could find useful please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

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10 Effective Stress Management Tips for Ph.D. Students

Did you embark on a PhD with a preconceived notion that it’s going to be a stressful journey? If your answer to that was a resounding yes, then you are not alone and definitely not wrong about it either! Sailing through a PhD can be quite daunting. As revealed by a survey conducted by  Nature , over 36% of the total researchers seek help for anxiety or depression related to their PhD. Although these results come from a small sample of around 6300 PhD students worldwide, the results are significant enough to address the prevalence of mental health issues in academia. Stress management is imperative for a smoother and tension-free research outcome.

With passing years, the stress levels among PhD students is worsening. Much has been spoken and written about how to overhaul the system and help students in their battle of coping with stress. However, in reality, the advice to PhD students is just a concept that’s heard and read about.

This article will guide PhD students and will discuss various factors that trigger stress levels at different stages in the life of a researcher. The tips for new PhD students will help them to combat stress and preserve your mental health.

Factors Causing Stress and Depression in PhD Students

Stress management of next generation researchers needs a systematic approach . However, before finding solutions, knowing the root cause is necessary to avoid similar situations in the future.

1. Growing Competition in Your Field

Students often get intimidated by the ongoing research in their field and compare the progress and status of their work with other researchers’ work.

2. Work Overload

Excessive work pressure and relentless overtime working induces anxiety and increases stress levels amongst PhD students.

3. Role Ambiguity

It is often seen that a candidate is unaware about their role in the study and what the supervisor or the Principal Investigator (P.I.) expects out of them as a peer.

4. Physiological Factors

While embarking on a PhD., students often take time to adapt to the physiological changes that come along. Dealing with physical health issues diverts your mind from focusing on your research work.

5. Behavioral Approach

Researchers tend to follow a fixed framework to complete their experiments. When unexpected results are derived, finding an alternative solution to obtain conclusions and scheduling a proper action plan encroaches the minds of a PhD student.

6. Performance Pressure

Most Ph.D students also work while pursuing their research. Hence, maintaining regular attendance, achieving goals, keeping the grades high, and completing assignments while adhering to deadlines can take a toll on their mental health.

7. Relationship with Supervisor

Working in isolation will not take you a long way. Not maintaining a healthy work-relationship with your supervisor affects the research outcome and by extension affects your mental health.

Tips for PhD Students to Overcome Anxiety

The solution to the  rising stress levels and mental health issues  faced by PhD researchers does not solely lie in the institutions providing on-campus mental-health support. Furthermore, it also does not depend on the institutions providing training for supervisors to deal with their group of students in coping with the stress. It also lies in understanding that stress is a consequence of an excessive focus on measuring performance. In addition, other entities such as the funders, academic institutions, journals, and publishers must also take responsibility of the mental health of researchers in a way that is feasible and within their limits.

The late nights and early mornings spent within four walls while completing your PhD, juggling between work and study, papers to publish, supervisors to please, and perhaps also living up to your family’s expectations takes a toll on you.These are some common instances where most Ph.D students are taken aback and left clueless.

The first step in fixing the problem is acknowledging it!

1. Finding an Credible Supervisor

As your supervisor is someone who will guide you throughout your program and help you face challenges, it is imperative to select your supervisor carefully. This process of identifying an incredible supervisor could get difficult and leave you confused. But a trick to deal with this is identifying a supervisor who is supportive, actively working in your field, has a strong publication record, and can give you sufficient time for mentoring.

2. Find the Right Research Funding Body

High rates of stress and depression arises at this stage of your PhD Strategizing your path into  choosing the right funding body for your research  is very important. Focus on maximizing the value of your research rather than just looking for monetary support.

3. Time Management

As a researcher, the key to a  stress-free research workflow is effective time management . Prioritize your tasks and plan your day based on the same. Set realistic and achievable goals. Do not overwhelm yourself with too many tasks to be done on a single day. Online project management tools such as Asana, Trello, ProofHub, etc. will help you to be on the top of your tasks.

4. Maintain a Healthy and Professional Supervisor‒Student Relationship

Finding yourself alone is quite normal for most people. Try building new connections with your colleagues and be affable to everyone. Maintaining a healthy and professional supervisor-student relationship is critical for the success of any research work.  Good communication will give you and the supervisor a clearer picture of your work. Share your honest concerns with your colleagues and supervisor in the most respectful way. If there is minimal response, reach out to the mental health team of your institution to resolve any conflicts amicably.

5. Presenting Negative or In-conclusive Results

There’s nothing to be ashamed of if your experiment does not deliver the expected results. Honest presentation of results is what makes you an ethical and respected researcher in the community,  irrespective of the results being positive, negative, or mixed . Compare your results and review them using tables or charts for effective presentation.

6. Writing Your Thesis

Here’s when you are one step closer to completing your PhD! The journey from here on is only uphill. So don’t push yourself back now. Start with planning your writing activities with a fresh mind. Furthermore, define sections of your thesis and focus on one section at a time. Don’t bother yourself with editing and formatting of the thesis. Complete the writing part first. Work on editing and finally  proofreading  your article to refurbish it in the next stage.

7. Select the Right Journal

Now that the writing process is completed, there’s no looking back from here. But the threat of falling prey to predatory journals cannot be unseen. Make this process easier by finding a journal that is related to your discipline. Consider the impact factor of the journal. Use journal finder tools such as  Enago’s Open Access Journal Finder , Elsevier Journal Finder , Springer Journal Suggester, Manuscript Matcher Tool in Web of Science Master List, etc. Once you have a list of journals, check their aims and scope to ensure your article fits their criteria.

Stress Management Tips for PhD Students and Early Career Researchers

Researchers must understand that completing their PhD is a part of their life and that it will come to an end someday. Whilst pursuing PhD  neglecting your mental health will eventually affect your research outcomes  in future. Therefore, stress management is very crucial to preserve your mental health and lead a peaceful life.

Follow these tips to maintain a work­‒life balance and preserve your mental health:

1. Acknowledging the Problem

We often deny that our mental health is affected by an external factor. It is important to understand what is bothering you and keeping you from achieving your goals. Therefore, once you are aware of the cause, accept it and work in a way to combat it.

2. Talk About the Problem

Being negligent and keeping those bothersome thoughts to yourself will only worsen the situation. Talk about your concerns with people who would care about it and help you deal with your anxiety.

3. Improve Your Organizational Skills

Your  key to successfully completing your PhD  is by managing your tasks efficiently without over-committing. Hence, maintaining a balance between professional and personal work is crucial.

4. Social Involvement

Engage yourself in social activities to keep your mind from spiraling in the pool of negative thoughts. Additionally, join groups that are not related to your domain. Learn to make connections with new people and get to know them better.

5. Rekindle Long Lost Hobbies

Get that old sketch book you left in the groove! Reembrace hobbies you haven’t been able to catch up with for a really long time. In addition, engage in fun activities or games that make you happy.

6. Practice Mindfulness

Try the 2-step exercise called “ The Mindful Pause ”. In this, you pause before or during a stressor and attentively breathe for 15 seconds, followed by one question for yourself — how might I use one of my character strengths right now? Take positive action with any character strength that pops up.

7. Meditate as a Relaxation Response

Spare 10-20 minutes a day, preferably in the morning to meditate. This involves silent repetition of a word, sound, or phrase while sitting quietly with a good posture and eyes closed.

8. Get Involved in Any Form of Physical Activity

Implement any form of physical activity in your daily routine to improve your cognitive and physical abilities. Consequently, the release of endorphins whilst exercising acts as a catalyst in keeping your spirits high.

9. Be Grateful

Acknowledge and appreciate the gift of life. Unleash your gratitude for being able to fulfil your dreams. Furthermore, remember every positive thing that has ever happened to you and express gratitude for having made things possible.

How often have you been stressed out while pursuing your PhD? Have you ever followed any stress management tricks? What are your thoughts on these advices to PhD students? What was your move in coping with stress associated to your research? Has maintaining proper work-life balance been easy for you? Let us know about your and your colleagues’ experiences in combating stress in the comments section below!

I have faced stress and maintaining balance in my life. Working full-time while pursuing a Ph.D. full-time with a family has been challenging thus far. I am going to try utilizing these tips to see how they help.

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5 Ways to Combat PhD Stress

• By Nicholas R.
• January 8, 2024

When you’re starting your research career as an academic researcher, there will be many things that overwhelm you when you start out. As someone who has been through this myself, I have put together 5 ways of dealing with overwhelming feelings during your PhD journey.

These strategies may not work every time, but they’ve helped me get through my own struggles so far and hopefully can help you too!

1. Know What’s Going On

Before you dive into trying to solve any problem or figure anything out, take care of yourself mentally by knowing what exactly overwhelms you at the moment. One way to do this is to journal about what stresses you right now. When you feel more able to cope, try exploring solutions for those issues.

For example, if you find yourself struggling with managing workload, then it might be helpful to know that this type of stress often occurs at the very beginning and very end of a PhD, at least for myself and others I’ve spoken to.

Knowing the sources of your stress is the first step to addressing it.

2. Take Care of Yourself

Once you understand why you’re feeling overwhelmed, the next thing to consider is taking care of yourself physically. Stress from work, school, relationships etc., all contribute to poor health decisions such as skipping meals, engaging in unhealthy eating habits, drinking or smoking excessively, reducing sleep and exercise etc. All of which impact negatively on our physical and mental well-being.

In addition, one study showed that people under extreme levels of pressure (such as doctoral candidates) were more prone to developing heart problems compared to other groups. So while taking care of yourself should always be a priority, it’s especially important to prioritise it even further when we’re stressed.

It can seem difficult to balance personal needs and researcher responsibilities, but doing so requires prioritising self-care over everything else. In order to achieve this, set aside dedicated blocks of time each day where you avoid distractions, focus solely on activities related to your wellbeing, and allow yourself to fully engage in whatever activity brings peace to your mind and body.

3. Talk About It With Friends and Family

One thing that you learn early in a PhD is that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. While the rewards of doing your PhD are many, there is a significant cost, and it comes in the form of stress.

You’ve probably heard the expression “ PhD students are walking time bombs ” – which is basically just a polite way of saying that PhD students are walking around with a serious short-fuse, and it’s only a matter of time before that fuse goes off.

Seek support from others before that happens…

Talking to close friends and family members helps us to process emotions better. Research shows that talking to others provides relief by releasing negative thoughts and worries, so we don’t need to carry them around inside ourselves throughout the rest of the day. Having supportive individuals in our lives makes it easier to handle both small tasks and large ones.

If you live alone, however, having someone available to discuss your concerns with can provide valuable insight into whether or not you’re handling stressful events properly. A friend or family member can offer perspective and guidance without judging you for your current situation.

4. Make Time For Fun Activities

We’ve all heard that it takes 10 years to make a really brilliant scientist. You might have trouble proving this, but it is a very long time, and many people struggle with sticking to a research plan that is longer than 3 months.

We also know that there are many distractions available in the ‘real world’, that are not available to researchers. A few months ago, for example, I went to a pub quiz night. While this may sound like a total waste of time, in fact it has become a huge amount of fun for me, and has helped me to get my research into the right place.

I also find that regular, non-research-related social events help keep things fresh and remind me that there are more important things than my research at the moment.

5. Accept That This Is Just Part Of The Process

The hardest part about completing a PhD program is simply surviving it. Many of the lessons learned along the way will come from overcoming obstacles and failures. Learning from setbacks and mistakes prepares us for future success. But sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we just won’t be successful at accomplishing certain milestones or reaching our desired outcome.

That doesn’t mean giving up though. Instead, accept that failure can happen and move onto bigger opportunities. Sometimes we learn more from our successes and achievements rather than focusing on our failures and shortcomings. Also, remember that setbacks aren’t permanent. Often, after a short period of mourning, we bounce back stronger than ever.

We shouldn’t beat ourselves up over failing. Rather, let it inspire us to become wiser and smarter for next time. After all, it takes countless attempts to master the skills required to succeed.

Regardless of how you’re feeling, remember that you are not alone. You are not alone on your PhD journey. You are not alone in your feelings. And you are not alone in your desire to succeed.

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Frances recently completed her PhD at the University of Bristol. Her research investigated the causes and consequences of hazardous lava-water interactions.

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‘You have to suffer for your PhD’: poor mental health among doctoral researchers – new research

Lecturer in Social Sciences, University of Westminster

Disclosure statement

Cassie Hazell has received funding from the Office for Students.

University of Westminster provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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PhD students are the future of research, innovation and teaching at universities and beyond – but this future is at risk. There are already indications from previous research that there is a mental health crisis brewing among PhD researchers.

My colleagues and I studied the mental health of PhD researchers in the UK and discovered that, compared with working professionals, PhD students were more likely to meet the criteria for clinical levels of depression and anxiety. They were also more likely to have significantly more severe symptoms than the working-professional control group.

We surveyed 3,352 PhD students, as well as 1,256 working professionals who served as a matched comparison group . We used the questionnaires used by NHS mental health services to assess several mental health symptoms.

More than 40% of PhD students met the criteria for moderate to severe depression or anxiety. In contrast, 32% of working professionals met these criteria for depression, and 26% for anxiety.

The groups reported an equally high risk of suicide. Between 33% and 35% of both PhD students and working professionals met the criteria for “suicide risk”. The figures for suicide risk might be so high because of the high rates of depression found in our sample.

We also asked PhD students what they thought about their own and their peers’ mental health. More than 40% of PhD students believed that experiencing a mental health problem during your PhD is the norm. A similar number (41%) told us that most of their PhD colleagues had mental health problems.

Just over a third of PhD students had considered ending their studies altogether for mental health reasons.

There is clearly a high prevalence of mental health problems among PhD students, beyond those rates seen in the general public. Our results indicate a problem with the current system of PhD study – or perhaps with academic more widely. Academia notoriously encourages a culture of overwork and under-appreciation.

This mindset is present among PhD students. In our focus groups and surveys for other research , PhD students reported wearing their suffering as a badge of honour and a marker that they are working hard enough rather than too much. One student told us :

“There is a common belief … you have to suffer for the sake of your PhD, if you aren’t anxious or suffering from impostor syndrome, then you aren’t doing it "properly”.

We explored the potential risk factors that could lead to poor mental health among PhD students and the things that could protect their mental health.

Financial insecurity was one risk factor. Not all researchers receive funding to cover their course and personal expenses, and once their PhD is complete, there is no guarantee of a job. The number of people studying for a PhD is increasing without an equivalent increase in postdoctoral positions .

Another risk factor was conflict in their relationship with their academic supervisor . An analogy offered by one of our PhD student collaborators likened the academic supervisor to a “sword” that you can use to defeat the “PhD monster”. If your weapon is ineffective, then it makes tackling the monster a difficult – if not impossible – task. Supervisor difficulties can take many forms. These can include a supervisor being inaccessible, overly critical or lacking expertise.

A lack of interests or relationships outside PhD study, or the presence of stressors in students’ personal lives were also risk factors.

We have also found an association between poor mental health and high levels of perfectionism, impostor syndrome (feeling like you don’t belong or deserve to be studying for your PhD) and the sense of being isolated .

Better conversations

Doctoral research is not all doom and gloom. There are many students who find studying for a PhD to be both enjoyable and fulfilling , and there are many examples of cooperative and nurturing research environments across academia.

Studying for a PhD is an opportunity for researchers to spend several years learning and exploring a topic they are passionate about. It is a training programme intended to equip students with the skills and expertise to further the world’s knowledge. These examples of good practice provide opportunities for us to learn about what works well and disseminate them more widely.

The wellbeing and mental health of PhD students is a subject that we must continue to talk about and reflect on. However, these conversations need to happen in a way that considers the evidence, offers balance, and avoids perpetuating unhelpful myths.

Indeed, in our own study, we found that the percentage of PhD students who believed their peers had mental health problems and that poor mental health was the norm, exceeded the rates of students who actually met diagnostic criteria for a common mental health problem . That is, PhD students may be overestimating the already high number of their peers who experienced mental health problems.

We therefore need to be careful about the messages we put out on this topic, as we may inadvertently make the situation worse. If messages are too negative, we may add to the myth that all PhD students experience mental health problems and help maintain the toxicity of academic culture.

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Tips: Dealing with Stress

By Gary Glass and Christine Pesetski

Stress is a normal and expected part of graduate school, but if left unmanaged, it could turn into distress or an even more disruptive condition. Here are five tips to help graduate students keep their stress from becoming distress. There are also a number of professional resources on campus to help students should they need it.

1. Take care of your body

Stress is, if nothing else, a physiological phenomenon that can be managed through sleep, exercise, and a good diet. Rest will help restore your physical and mental resources; exercise will release the tension that emerges when you face challenges over a period of time; and eating and drinking well will fuel your body and mind for upcoming challenges.

2. Don’t neglect your life outside of school

Inevitably, being a graduate student demands a focus that can block out the other things in your life that matter. However, too much neglect of those other things can cost you the energy and focus to meet your academic demands. However imbalanced your time investments may be, be sure to set aside time for your other priorities: relationships (family, friends, partners), interests and passions, time for reflection or spiritual focus, and taking care of your body (as mentioned in No. 1 above).

3. Remind yourself of your long-term goals

One of the most common sources of stress is the exhaustion of working on something with no tangible results in the short term. Much of graduate school stress is related to your long-term aspirations. Keep re-assessing whether your long-term goals remain intact. Each time you do, you will renew your motivation and reduce your stress because your work is not as much a threat as it is a valued opportunity.

4. Celebrate milestones along the way

Sometimes you might get stuck in thinking that you have to do more and do it faster, and better than everyone else. This can lead you down a path that may not be helpful as you work toward your long-term goals. It is useful to acknowledge and reward yourself when you complete a portion of your work. This can give your endorphins a boost, allow you to breathe a little deeper, and provide a shift in focus that can be valuable in regenerating yourself for the next leg of the journey.

5. Allow yourself to trust

Trust in your ability to listen to the physical, emotional, and mental cues your body provides. Usually, if you are not in a reactive mindset, you can pay attention to the things you need. Also, remember that there are others you can trust. Reach out to those who care. Ask for help from your adviser or other faculty with whom you have good relationships. Remember that the administrators at The Graduate School are concerned and invested in your well-being and success, and keep in mind the resources at the university (see below). We are all here to help you.

Help on Campus

There are a number of services on campus to help students if their stress does lead to distress or an even more disruptive condition. If you are concerned about your own health, well-being, or safety, or if you are worried about another student, reach out to one of these services.

• DukeReach is a good starting point if students are unsure where to turn for health, well-being, and safety resources on campus.
• Blue Devils Care  is a new, free, 24/7 mental telehealth service for students.
• Counseling and Psychological Services helps students manage increasing stress or deal with situations best addressed in collaboration with a trained mental-health professional. CAPS staff members are also available to provide counsel on how to be supportive of a peer that you may be concerned about.
• The Duke Student Wellness Center helps students focus on their individual wellness by looking at the integration of many areas of life, including financial, social, spiritual, intellectual well-being, mind-body, and the environment around them. The center provides individual services, does group outreach, and acts as consultants as well as a hub of information on wellness.
• Student Health Services provides a wide range of health-care services, many of which are covered by the student health fee. Student Health can serve as the primary-care physician for students and also refer students to specialists within the Duke network as needed.

Gary Glass is a former staff psychologist at Counseling and Psychological Services. Christine Pesetski is the former senior director for academic programs and registrar at the Duke Divinity School and the former assistant dean of students at DukeReach.

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Lessons learned from a phd student who studies phd students’ stress and coping.

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High stress in PhD programs is a familiar experience – graduate students talk and commiserate about it together, we share support strategies or seek university resources to get through some of the toughest milestones or working demands, and we laugh (often with some inward recognition) when someone shares a picture about PhD culture and how hard earning a doctorate is from the likes of PhD Comics , Lego Grad Student , or xkcd .

This high stress has serious consequences: a Nature Biotechnology paper from 2018 suggests that as many as a third of all PhD students develop or experience psychological disorders. Other research suggests that as many as half of all PhD students across all disciplines in the United States depart their programs early. I learned of these figures shortly after dropping out myself, leaving a PhD program in physics at another university where around half of my cohort had decided to depart their degrees, as had many friends and peers I had known from undergraduate studies. For me, a challenging advisor relationship, some mental health issues, several close friends departing before me, and some of my working demands all played into my decision to drop out of a PhD. I became interested in why these mental health and dropout rates were so high, and what we could do to better serve – and preserve – PhD students in their programs and their well-being, which led me back to UIUC to pursue a PhD in Educational Psychology.

I did my Bachelor’s studies here and felt that the education of students was really valued, so I came back to study the PhD student experience and hopefully to describe with vigorous research what doctoral workplaces are like and how they become so stressful. Now, as I depart with the knowledge from my dissertation work which studied high stress, and as I reflect on the experiences of my PhD, I’d like to share some of my findings, some thoughts about what I think could be improved in how we approach stress in PhD programs, and how this research impacted my work as a PhD student.

About the Doctoral Engineering Experience Study

My dissertation work, very recently defended, explored the nature and the consequences of high stress for PhD students, especially ones in engineering programs. In a study mixing qualitative and quantitative psychological and educational research methods, I first conducted a series of interviews and surveys with a diverse cohort of engineering PhD students and then used what I learned from those interviews to develop and test a survey to measure stressors , by which I mean   sources of stress. While other studies of stress for PhD students often focus on a specific stressor, like navigating relationships with PhD advisors, I found that I wanted to understand the full landscape of stressors and how they affected PhD students of different identities, at different stages of their PhD programs, and in different sorts of research environments.

I found that there were, roughly, eleven categories of stressors we could label that would be relevant to most students, including stressors related to doing research, interacting with the advisor, completing coursework, and balancing work and life as the most commonly occurring. Overall, my team’s findings are unsurprising at first glance: the most severe stress happens when multiple of these categories are actively causing stress at once. The consequences of these stressors vary widely, but include heightened symptoms of stress, anxiety, and other mental health challenges, and decreased intention to persist in PhD programs. Additional consequences included late nights and trouble sleeping, physical discomfort, reduced use of hobbies and other relaxation strategies, and ‘cycles’ of falling behind. Some stressors were what we call inherent  to the undertaking of a PhD - these stressors are the kind that every student might expect to experience, like balancing home life, research, and coursework. Other stressors were not-inherent , involving situations which were harder to anticipate, such as conflicts with a colleague, medical issues, or experiencing microaggressions. My team recommends that mandatory training modules for students, which currently focus on preventing not-inherent stressors, should also include guidance on dealing with stress inherent to PhDs, and that advisors should more consistently model their strategies for coping with stress.

How Researching Doctoral Student Stress Affected Me

This study gave me an opportunity for me to hear the stories of stress and coping from a wide range of students and apply new techniques to my own working life. I noticed in particular that participants in my interview study who had really well-set routines were among the least stressed across the students I sampled. Thus, I pushed my own writing and research schedule to be more consistent during the last two years of my PhD, greatly improving the quality of my working life – and resulting in a quick production of my dissertation. To keep myself level, I increased my practice of taking more weekend and evening time off and set a hard limit to never conduct work on Saturdays in particular, which I am glad upheld firmly, even as my defense date grew near. Further, I raised my awareness of my bandwidth for working effectively and turning down or postponing projects when necessary, acting on the important lesson most graduate students learn about saying “no” to projects.

I recommend coping practices to younger graduate students now, including experimenting with schedules and routines. For example, as I tried to set a routine, I found that if I requested no meetings after a certain point in the afternoon, I could write uninterrupted in the middle of the day when I am most productive, building “deep work times” into my schedule. I have also become more open about my advising preferences, particularly where writing is concerned. For example, after hearing of a participant’s useful “workshop sessions” with their advisor, I requested more frequent writing meetings with my advisor for the purposes of accountability and for receiving feedback. My advisor was initially somewhat skeptical about whether the meetings would be productive for her, but we ended up collaboratively advancing and submitting several manuscripts as a result of these workshops.

A Few Closing Thoughts

If I could choose for my research to have one result, it would be that it catalyzes some conversations about stress in PhD programs: why it’s so normally experienced and how it affects students. I hope that undergraduates, administrators, staff, and professors can see some of their own stressful experiences in the descriptions my study’s participants gave and consider their own experiences of stress, and maybe how they cause, reduce, or normalize stress. Culture changes only when individuals start to, through words and through many discussions. As part of a graduate community, this is a culture that affects us all deeply and in the institution which is heralded as the most progressive agent of change and growing human knowledge, we have a lot to do together to advocate for the wellness of one another, and ourselves.

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Joe  Mirabelli   recently graduated with a doctoral degree from the Department of Educational Psychology, and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. His graduate work focused on engineering education, including studies of culture, mental health, and retention of engineering students. He is very grateful for the many collaborative research experiences and training received with the Departments of Educational Psychology and Bioengineering during his PhD studies.

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Wisdom must be hurt: PhD students’ stress and dilemma from the perspective of self-efficacy

• Published: 28 May 2024
• Volume 43 , pages 24028–24040, ( 2024 )

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• Zhong Fangqi 1 &
• Li Pengpeng 2  

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An number of studies has shown that PhD students are experiencing dissatisfaction and stress. The high global percentage of PhD dropout rates has been regarded by higher education as an urgent issue. This study used the self-efficacy theory as an inquiry tool and in-depth interviews as a method to explore the current situation of Taiwanese PhD students and the stress and difficulties they face. The results of the study found that, although the dilemmas faced by Taiwanese PhD students has something in common with the self-efficacy theory, there are also special experiences in the context of Chinese culture which effect performance and accomplishment. Lack of affirmation prevents the PhD students from receiving positive evaluations and causes them to doubt their abilities. At the same time, PhD students have long suffered from parental mandatory expectation education, believing that they must be excellent and maintain family pride, thus putting them under considerable psychological stress.

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Fangqi, Z., Pengpeng, L. Wisdom must be hurt: PhD students’ stress and dilemma from the perspective of self-efficacy. Curr Psychol 43 , 24028–24040 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06078-2

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Experienced PhD stress in the world of academia

The academic world has changed a lot over the passed decade which has resulted in the deteriorating status of the researchers [2], a lot of work-related stress ( PhD stress ), and mental health issues for people working in academia [1],[3]. According to study [3], 47% of the PhD students in Berkeley reached the threshold for being depressed, and according to study [1], 40.81% of the PhD students in Flanders, Belgium felt under constant strain. Compared to highly educated professionals or students, people with a PhD or PhD students report much more mental health issues [1],[2]. Feelings of being powerless, helpless, stressed, depressed, unhappiness, and being unable to enjoy every day activities are common among people working in the academic field. On top of that, low self-esteem and perfectionism are common among academics [19]. Job insecurity, temporary contracts, too many PhD students and too little faculty positions, and changes in the funding policies are some of the contributing factors to more PhD stress [1],[2]. The biggest problem for most people working in the academic world is that they can’t do anything about these contributing factors: you join the rat race or you’re out!

Fortunately, PhD stress and the chance of developing mental health issues can be reduced to a minimum with the tips on this page. This article focuses on PhD stress , its causes and ways to reduce the experienced stress levels.    

PhD stress – Why do PhD students experience so much stress these days?

There are several contributing factors that add to the stress PhD students experience:

• Future perspective : poor promotion/job prospects; temporary contracts [1],[2].
• Personal life : work-family conflict & family-work conflict [1],[4],[5].
• Work context : supervisor’s leadership style; job demands; job control [1],[6],[7],[9],[10],[11].
• Personality and mental health [8].

Future perspective

PhD stress – Ratio between PhD students and faculty positions

Due to the economical crisis worldwide, many universities and research institutes are experiencing financial problems, because governments have been cutting in the funds for education for years now. Less funding leads to fewer (permanent) job positions or promotions, less money for research, and an increase in job insecurity and short-term contracts [1],[2]. Most research institutes and universities are forced to apply stricter criteria in the allocation of research funds. In some countries, research funds can only be obtained by universities and research institutes if research proposals are accepted by international funding commissions [2]. The cuts in funding can also be seen in the reducing amount of available job positions or promotions; people with a permanent job prefer the security the job gives them over the new challenges they face with a new (temporary) job. On top of that, the amount of PhD students has increased significantly over the past decade, whereas the amount of faculty positions has only slightly increased (see image) over the past decade [1]. More PhD students for few positions leads to more competition and PhD stress . The increasing amount of PhD students in combination with the poor job/promotion prospects has created a huge pool of unemployed people with a PhD. In short : less money for research and education has lead to more short term contracts , poor promotion/job prospects, more unemployment, more competition, and too many highly educated people (PhD students or higher) compared to the amount of positions available. Consequently, this leads to a lot of PhD stress .    

Personal life

Family to work: work to family by gender

A lot of PhD students or people with a PhD work in the evenings and weekends due to the high workload, which negatively affects their social life (missing out on family time, parties, and date nights with partner). This is a clear example of work-to-family interference. Both work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts are associated with psychological distress [1], job dissatisfaction, and burnout among employees in a range of occupations [5]. A possible reason could be the negative sanctions (at both personal and institutional levels) academic scientists face when family interferes with work [4]. Unsurprisingly, if the departmental climate becomes more competitive and stressful, the probability of work-to-family conflict increases significantly [4]. These circumstances will add to the PhD stress most academics experience, especially if nothing changes.    

Work context

8 bad leadership traits

Stress has a negative impact on leadership styles. When a supervisor experiences a lot of PhD stress , their leadership qualities deteriorate, which leads to higher levels of stress and burnout in their subordinates [6]. Also, destructive leadership is associated with counterproductive work behaviour and a negative attitude towards the organization in subordinates [7].

In other words: reducing PhD stress by applying changes on an organisational level can be effective if organisations focus on leadership styles and job demands and job control.  

Job demands and job control

There is a strong relationship between high job demands and emotional exhaustion and depressive feelings. Job demands are those physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort [10]. High job demand and low job control is associated with increased PhD stress . Job control refers to control one experiences regarding the timing of breaks, usage of skills, and working pace [1]. High job demands, low job control, and certain leadership styles in combination with fewer (PhD/permanent) positions in academia creates a PhD stress cocktail so lethal that it’s almost impossible to sustain a health work-to-family life where weekends and evenings can be spend with family.    

Personality and mental health

Some people are more sensitive to stress than others. Certain personality traits such as neuroticism, disagreeableness, and tendency to perceive hostility can all lead individuals to be more reactive to stress as well as to perceive the behaviors of others in a hostile manner [8]. Also, suffering from PTSD, anxiety disorders or mood disorders can increase stress levels, because these mental disorders negatively affect daily life and work performance.    

What can you do to reduce PhD stress?

There are several things someone can do to reduce PhD stress and to stay as productive as before. For some people, small changes and adjustments are sufficient, whereas for others, it means they need to develop a whole new way of living and working. In some cases, the stressor will disappear, in other cases, however, coping skills will be offered to deal with them, because it’s difficult to control them (think of leadership style). Let’s have a closer look:  

Adopt a healthy day and night rhythm

An unhealthy day/night rhythm can cause all kinds of changes in peoples’ behaviour and mood. In general, sleep disturbance impairs quality of life. Compared to good sleepers, people with chronic sleep problems experience more psychological distress and impairments in daytime functioning [13]. People who experience sleep disturbances (or nightmares or insomnia), for instance, have significantly more suicidal thoughts and behaviours [12]. And right before people experience a manic or depressive episode, they report sleeping problems [13]. Therefore, it’s important to keep a healthy day/night rhythm: use the bed(room) only for sleeping; sleep a minimum of 6,5 and a maximum of eight hours a night [13]; switch off electronic devices one hour before you go to bed; develop a bedtime routine (brushing teeth, taking a shower, read for 10 minutes, turn off light); immediately leave the bed when you wake up (no snoozing).  

Adopt a healthy lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle both prevents and reduces the amount of stress one experiences [14]. People who’ve adopted a healthy lifestyle, pay attention to their nutrition, are more in touch with nature, exercise and relax regularly, and possess stress management skills and/or meditate [14]. Exercise and meditation do not only reduce the amount of stress one experiences, they also help reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression [14]. At the same time, both meditation and exercise force you to take a mental break from work/study related activities, and give you time to recharge mentally again. Paying attention to good nutrition indirectly affects the stress levels one experiences, because it prevents people from eating too many calories, and to eat healthy and varied. Obese people are at higher risk of developing depression; the odds increase for severely obese people [15]. Herbal and nutritional supplements such as kava, passionflower, Lysine, and Magnesium help reduce symptoms of anxiety [16], and thus add to the reduction of PhD stress . NOTE: Next to taking in anxiolytic ingredients, users of passionflower and kava may also consume ineffective of possibly toxic substances [16]. Therefore, it’s important to discuss the intake of herbal medication with your General Practitioner. Avoid (too much) coffee and alcohol. Although coffee has a stimulating effect on people, on the long run people can get dependent on caffeine with means that they need more caffeine to experience the same stimulating effect as before. Unfortunately, regular caffeine and alcohol intake leads to feelings of fatigue and tiredness.  

Visit a specialist

Visiting a therapist or counselor when someone feels emotionally or physically exhausted, also known as burnout, or depressed, suffers from symptoms of anxiety or has self-esteem issues is highly recommended. Sometimes, people cannot get better on their own and need a professional to treat or guide them through this process. It is possible that work or study is so demanding that it exhausts you mentally or physically, which increases the chance of developing a mental disorder or symptoms of mental disorders. Sometimes, (old/childhood) traumatic experiences resurface or get triggered, which can lead to sleeping problems, irritability, flashbacks, numbness, and eventually reduce the productivity levels needed to perform at work or for study. For others, low self-esteem may cause a lot of PhD stress , because they constantly question their own academic (writing) skills and are afraid to make mistakes. This may result in perfectionism and perfectionism leads to more worry and rumination about work [19]. Worry and rumination add to stress levels.  

Use a family calendar

People working in academia may experience a lot of work-to-family and family-to-work stress [1] due to job demands and family obligations. A lot of the problems within families are caused by self-centeredness: the intense desire to achieve desired goals and little tendency to satisfy the others’ needs [18]. Although there is no relationship between communication skill level and marriage satisfaction [17], there is a relationship between marriage satisfaction and conflict resolution: a domineering, authoritarian or autocratic control of the conflict leads to less marital satisfaction and longer lasting conflicts [18]. Due to this approach, partners are less likely to adjust to their partner’s needs and competition and feelings of jealousy between them grows [17]. Knowing in advance what someone’s schedule is, prevents surprises, conflicts, and increases the likelihood that the partner will adjust their schedule a little. A family calendar is very helpful for those who have a busy schedule and have children. People can plan events and deadlines way in advance and it reduces the experienced PhD stress significantly.  

Schedule breaks

It is common for people in academia to work on articles for hours at once, because they need to get into a flow (increases their productivity). Unfortunately, writing/working for hours without a proper break is exhausting on the long run, and makes people less emotionally available (which leads to more conflicts at home). Consequently, people become less productive which will lead to longer writing shifts. Therefore, it is important to have regular breaks of 10 minutes, and to have one big break of one hour around lunch time. Exercise, relax or socialize with friends in the evening. This will help you recharge your battery for the next day.  

Have a support network

Having a support network moderates the effects stress has on psychological distress and significantly improves quality of life [20]. Also, a support network is a strong predictor of a person’s physical health and wellbeing, and helps people cope with phd stress. Intimate social relationships, rather than family relationships, is the strongest predictor of overall life satisfaction [20].  

Have a back-up plan

Temporary contracts, less funding for research, too many people with at least a PhD (compared to the amount of positions available), and a strong competitive field, significantly reduce the chance that one will finds a PhD position or job in their desired field. Add the fact that switching careers is considered a failure (because you were not good enough), and it becomes clear that this may be the most difficult piece of advice to follow-up on. Unfortunately, it’s a fact that most people who do their PhD will not end up working in academia, or will have to live from temporary contract to temporary contract. Especially the latter adds to the experienced PhD stress . Make sure you have a back-up plan. Discuss with family or friends how long you will try to get (a) a PhD position or a permanent position in your desired field, before switching to plan B. Discuss what plan B will be and make sure that you like plan B, and that finding a job is easier with plan B.  

Schedule regular meeting with your supervisor/boss

Communicate with your supervisor/boss to know what he/she expects of you and to keep them updated about your progress. Depending on your boss’s leadership style and personality, it is likely that you boss will not ask too much of you when he/she knows how much you have to do still.    

• [1] Levecque, K., Anseel, F., De Beuckelaer, A., Van der Heyden, J., & Gisle, L. (2017). Work organization and mental health problems in PhD students. Research Policy, 46(4), 868-879.
• [2] Pavli, S., Uršič, M., & Hočevar, M. (2013). Changing the context of researchers’work in academia. Annales, Series historia et sociologia, 23(2), 365-376.
• [3] http://ga.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/wellbeingreport_2014.pdf
• [4] Fox, M. F., Fonseca, C., & Bao, J. (2011). Work and family conflict in academic science: Patterns and predictors among women and men in research universities. Social Studies of Science, 41, 715-735.
• [5] Kelloway, E. K., Gottlieb, B. H., & Barham, L. (1999). The source, nature, and direction of work and family conflict: a longitudinal investigation. Journal of occupational health psychology, 4, 337.
• [6] Harms, P. D., Credé, M., Tynan, M., Leon, M., & Jeung, W. (2017). Leadership and stress: A meta-analytic review. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 178-194.
• [7] Schyns, B., & Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 138-158.
• [8] Brees, J., Martinko, M., & Harvey, P. (2016). Abusive supervision: Subordinate personality or supervisor behavior? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31 , 405–419.
• [9] Emery, C. R., & Barker, K. J. (2007). The effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of customer contact personnel. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 11 , 77.
• [10] A.H. De Lange, T.W. Taris, M.A.J. Kompier, I.L.D. Houtman, P.M. Bongers, 2004. Work characteristics and psychological well-being: testing normal: reversed and reciprocal relationships within the 4-wave SMASH study. Work Stress, 18 , 149-166.
• [11] Skogstad, A., Einarsen, S., Torsheim, T., Aasland, M. S., & Hetland, H. (2007). The Destructiveness of Laissez-Faire Leadership Behavior. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12 , 80-92.
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• [13] Harvey, A. G. (2008). Sleep and circadian rhythms in bipolar disorder: seeking synchrony, harmony, and regulation. American journal of psychiatry, 165 , 820-829.
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• [15] Onyike, C. U., Crum, R. M., Lee, H. B., Lyketsos, C. G., & Eaton, W. W. (2003). Is obesity associated with major depression? Results from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. American journal of epidemiology, 158 , 1139-1147.
• [16] Lakhan, S. E., & Vieira, K. F. (2010). Nutritional and herbal supplements for anxiety and anxiety-related disorders: systematic review. Nutrition Journal, 9 , 42.
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Management of Stress and Anxiety Among PhD Students During Thesis Writing: A Qualitative Study

Affiliation.

• 1 Author Affiliations: Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan (Drs Bazrafkan, Yousefi, and Yamani); and Applied Linguistics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (Dr Shokrpour), Shiraz, Iran.
• PMID: 27455365
• DOI: 10.1097/HCM.0000000000000120

Today, postgraduate students experience a variety of stresses and anxiety in different situations of academic cycle. Stress and anxiety have been defined as a syndrome shown by emotional exhaustion and reduced personal goal achievement. This article addresses the causes and different strategies of coping with this phenomena by PhD students at Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences. The study was conducted by a qualitative method using conventional content analysis approach. Through purposive sampling, 16 postgraduate medical sciences PhD students were selected on the basis of theoretical sampling. Data were gathered through semistructured interviews and field observations. Six hundred fifty-four initial codes were summarized and classified into 4 main categories and 11 subcategories on the thematic coding stage dependent on conceptual similarities and differences. The obtained codes were categorized under 4 themes including "thesis as a major source of stress," "supervisor relationship," "socioeconomic problem," and "coping with stress and anxiety." It was concluded that PhD students experience stress and anxiety from a variety of sources and apply different methods of coping in effective and ineffective ways. Purposeful supervision and guidance can reduce the cause of stress and anxiety; in addition, coping strategy must be in a thoughtful approach, as recommended in this study.

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Career Guide  31 January 2020

Career resources for PhD students

The PhD is used to train most research scientists around the world and provides evidence of a gruelling period of independent study. But critics say many graduate student programmes have not adapted to accommodate changes in the workplace. Do PhDs need a rethink? This collection of articles and resources from across Nature Research looks at the PhD from a range of different perspectives.

• Career Guide content
• Jobs and training

Graduate student survey 2022

Stress and uncertainty drag down graduate students’ satisfaction

Scholars in PhD and master’s programmes struggle with securing work–life balance and support around career training and mental health, finds Nature survey.

• Chris Woolston

‘Not even enough money for food’: graduate students face cash crunch

The cost-of-living crisis is causing widespread financial distress among those in master’s and PhD programmes worldwide.

The scandal of researchers paid less than a living wage

The cost-of-living crisis is a fundamental threat for PhD scholars and early-career researchers. They need to be paid properly.

‘I don’t want this kind of life’: graduate students question career options

As interest in academia fades, scholars in PhD and master’s programmes are dubious about the value of their degree in advancing their professional lives, finds Nature survey.

Obstacle race: the barriers facing graduates who study abroad

Visa woes and a lack of career prospects affect many international students, Nature ’s survey finds.

‘Intellectual challenge’: master’s students find reasons to be satisfied with their degree programmes

Graduate scholars are eager to launch their careers, eschewing the years of further study required for doctoral degrees.

‘Beyond anything I could have imagined’: graduate students speak out about racism

Bias and discrimination are rife in master’s and PhD programmes worldwide, a Nature survey finds.

How to network with the brightest minds in science

Past attendees of the Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting describe how the event can benefit early career researchers.

• Lesley Evans Ogden

Hunger on campus: why US PhD students are fighting over food

Graduate students are relying on donated and discounted food in the struggle to make ends meet.

• Laurie Udesky

How we landed job interviews for professorships straight out of our PhD programmes

Follow these tips for an uber-organized (and successful) job hunt.

• Violeta Rodriguez

How two PhD students overcame the odds to snag tenure-track jobs

Between us, we got several offers to lead labs before we had finished our PhDs.

Three actions PhD-holders should take to land their next job

A hiring manager reveals the lessons he learnt when transitioning from a PhD programme to industry.

• Fawzi Abou-Chahine

Insights from four female scientists caught at the early-career crossroads

Facing challenges including parenthood, mental-health strain and financial pressures, these researchers give advice for navigating the uncertain paths before them.

How a peer network made my worst day as a grad student bearable

Anxiety and depression affect nearly half of all early-career researchers. Strengthening our communities from within can provide relief, says Taylor Tibbs.

• Taylor Tibbs

How mixing academia and industry opens doors in graduate school and beyond

A growing number of PhD programmes and postdoc positions combine academic questions and industry resources.

• Freda Kreier

How to cold e-mail for a PhD

I learnt the benefits of reaching out through e-mail while I was a student, now I receive many cold e-mails myself. Here’s how to write a good one.

• Melissa Hart

New Year’s resolutions of a final-year PhD student

Andrew Wood plans for a career-defining 12 months ahead, and what he needs to focus on.

• Andrew Wood

How a pandemic PhD peer network group stood the test of time

As the first graduate student in a new lab, Jillian Collins came to rely on regular virtual meetings with peers from across the United States.

• Jillian Collins

Do two PhDs make twice the researcher?

Some scientists earn two PhD degrees to expand their skills, cross fields or create a niche research programme.

• Virginia Gewin

PhD students face cash crisis with wages that don’t cover living costs

As inflation rates soar, new data on the finances of US graduate students spark calls for action.

Starting a scientific career with narcolepsy

Ronja Weber describes living as a PhD student with narcolepsy, a chronic condition that disrupts sleep-wake processes.

• Ronja Weber

Why I got a PhD at age 61

A chance meeting at a scientific retreat took Zoltán Kócsi from the electronics industry to the entomology lab.

• Zoltán Kócsi

Owning, not doing: my transition from master’s to PhD student

Yuning Wang learned to rely less on her supervisor’s guidance during her doctoral programme, an important step on the road to research autonomy.

• Yuning Wang

How I navigated my way through a midlife PhD

Roger Tipton was approaching 50 when he made a bold career move. Here’s what he learnt.

• Roger Tipton

‘Hard’ skills from our PhDs remain relevant beyond academia

Experience in grant-writing, data analysis and presentation will serve you well, say Samantha Baggott and Jonathan McGuire.

• Jonathan McGuire
• Samantha Baggott

Depression and anxiety ‘the norm’ for UK PhD students

A new survey underscores mental-health risks for doctoral researchers.

Managing up: how to communicate effectively with your PhD adviser

Your supervisor has a vested interest in your success. Set the right tone and communication style when you meet with them.

• Lluís Saló-Salgado
• Angi Acocella
• Augustine Zvinavashe

How I tackled post-PhD imposter syndrome

Kelsey Inouye’s job search gave her panic attacks and dented her self-esteem. But she learnt to take rejection in her stride.

• Kelsey Inouye

How to manage the uncertainty of a remote PhD

Satheesh Kumar has found ways to be productive without ever visiting his supervisor or lab.

• Satheesh Kumar

Take a walk: it’s the easiest way to step away from your graduate studies

Aine Lehane’s dog taught her the value of taking a break.

• Aine Lehane

The 100 memes that immortalize my PhD defence

Sophie Dufour-Beauséjour chose an unusual way to capture an academic rite of passage, with a little help from her friends.

• Sophie Dufour-Beauséjour

Six lessons from a pandemic PhD student

If you’re starting a doctoral programme later this year, particularly if your institution is still facing COVID-19 restrictions, Ciara O’Brien has some advice.

• Ciara O’Brien

You can help to create a new researcher-reward system

Universities, funders and others want to expand the contributions that the scientific community values and recognizes, says Karen Stroobants.

• Karen Stroobants

Sell yourself and your science in a compelling personal statement

Don’t get bogged down in technical details, and balance the professional and the personal.

Why you should consider becoming a doctoral representative

Join a group that represents PhD researchers to improve the working environment of your colleagues and to make friends.

• Michaela Löffler

My 2020 as an ‘alien’ PhD student in New York

Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona learnt three key lessons as an international graduate student in the United States, and is optimistic about 2021.

• Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona

Lifelong lessons from my unexpected encounter with a synchrotron

Biomedical scientist Vladimira Foteva didn’t imagine she would be working with physicists at an Australian particle accelerator when she began her PhD, but the experience taught her the value of collaboration across disciplines.

• Vladimira Foteva

My 11 part-time jobs made me a better PhD student

Waitressing, bartending and tutoring stole time from my academic studies, but I picked up transferable skills that still serve me well, says Cassie Sims.

• Cassie Sims

The lonely marathon run that transformed my approach to graduate school

When encouragement from friends, colleagues and family became harder to find, Taylor Engdahl learnt how to push herself.

• Taylor Engdahl

How I run a lab and work as a PhD student simultaneously

Oday Abushalbaq outlines his experience leading a team of neuroscience researchers from 9,000 kilometres away — while completing his PhD training.

• Oday Abushalbaq

Why comparing yourself to other graduate students is counter-productive

Julia Nolte realized that the only fair comparison to make during a PhD is with your past self.

• Julia Nolte

How managing a chronic illness gave me skills that would strengthen my PhD

A childhood diagnosis of type 1 diabetes taught Olivia Favor about the importance of meticulous record-keeping and other skills that proved useful in the lab.

• Olivia Favor

How science should support researchers with visual impairments

Naheda Sahtout says being legally blind doesn’t fundamentally affect her skills, and argues that science needs to start a conversation to attract and empower more researchers like her.

• Naheda Sahtout

How to shake off the ‘impostor’ fears that plague your PhD studies

Three strategies for fighting those insidious feelings that you don’t deserve to be where you are.

• Maisie Keogh

Fifteen to one: how many applications it can take to land a single academic job offer

Survey finds that standard metrics of success can’t completely explain why some candidates get offers and others don’t.

• Nina Notman

Overcoming my writing guilt: writing in lockdown

How a PhD student found a way to be productive during lockdown after weeks of inactivity.

US government rescinds antagonistic international-student visa policy

Plan to force students to take in-person classes or face deportation is dropped during a federal hearing.

Bleak financial outlook for PhD students in Australia

Unable to afford medicines, utilities and housing, some students expect to suspend their doctoral programmes or drop out.

Coronavirus diaries: a lockdown letter to myself as a PhD student

A closed lab prompts John Tregoning to reflect on his early career, informed by his 12-year-old son’s response to COVID-19.

• John Tregoning

How lost lizards and Hurricane Irma are helping me get through coronavirus restrictions

When the coronavirus pandemic struck, field ecologist Nicholas Herrmann adopted a perspective inspired by experiences earlier in his PhD.

• Nicholas Herrmann

Design your own doctoral project

Instead of looking for PhD positions, designing your own project offers advantages and challenges, says Jesko Becker.

• Jesko Becker

Five ‘power skills’ for becoming a team leader

Volunteering with an organization can improve communication and help you adapt to the unexpected, say Sarah Groover and Ruth Gotian.

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Management of Stress and Anxiety Among PhD Students During Thesis Writing

A qualitative study.

Bazrafkan, Leila PhD; Shokrpour, Nasrin PhD; Yousefi, Alireza PhD; Yamani, Nikoo MD, PhD

Author Affiliations: Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan (Drs Bazrafkan, Yousefi, and Yamani); and Applied Linguistics, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (Dr Shokrpour), Shiraz, Iran.

Authors' Contributions: Leila Bazrafkan developed the study design, conducted the interviews and analysis, ensured trustworthiness, and drafted the manuscript. Alireza Yousefi, as the supervisor, participated in the study design, supervised the codes and data analysis process, and revised the manuscripts. Nikoo Yamani and Nasrin Shokrpour, as research consultants, participated in the study and advised during the study.

Funding/Support: The present article was extracted from the thesis written by Leila Bazrafkan and was financially supported by Esfahan University of Medical Sciences (grant no. 92-6746).

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Correspondence: Nikoo Yamani, MD, PhD, Department of Medical Education, Medical Education Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Esfahan, Iran ( [email protected] ).

Today, postgraduate students experience a variety of stresses and anxiety in different situations of academic cycle. Stress and anxiety have been defined as a syndrome shown by emotional exhaustion and reduced personal goal achievement. This article addresses the causes and different strategies of coping with this phenomena by PhD students at Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences. The study was conducted by a qualitative method using conventional content analysis approach. Through purposive sampling, 16 postgraduate medical sciences PhD students were selected on the basis of theoretical sampling. Data were gathered through semistructured interviews and field observations. Six hundred fifty-four initial codes were summarized and classified into 4 main categories and 11 subcategories on the thematic coding stage dependent on conceptual similarities and differences. The obtained codes were categorized under 4 themes including “thesis as a major source of stress,” “supervisor relationship,” “socioeconomic problem,” and “coping with stress and anxiety.” It was concluded that PhD students experience stress and anxiety from a variety of sources and apply different methods of coping in effective and ineffective ways. Purposeful supervision and guidance can reduce the cause of stress and anxiety; in addition, coping strategy must be in a thoughtful approach, as recommended in this study.

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How to manage Phd stress, anxiety and disillusionment

Either that or they feel like this is the only path that could possibly delay the pains of job hunting.

Whatever be the reason, one ends up in grad school, one looks forward to an experience of academic growth, with the professors. The professors, they think and hope, will walk them through the expansive mire of intellectual space.

All that quickly fades away, much like the career of a-once-popular Baba Sehgal. It starts with qualifiers, comprehensive exams, proposal defense- many names but all with the same intent, an initiation of sorts, to getting used to being intimidated.

With the load of courses and teaching assistantships , one gets little time, if any, to start research. Well, at least that’s how it works in most of the US, unless you get some kind of a fellowship and don’t have to worry about earning a living through teaching. When I say earning, though not being paid in peanuts, it is just enough to buy a sack of peanuts and rent a measly apartment to store it in.

Now, having completed the obligatory dance-around-the-fire, one is ready to start on their doctorateship . After careful consideration of – which field to go to, whether Prof. X has funding to last ones’ thesis, and whether he would pass the congeniality test, in the last month’s issue of the Cosmopolitan – one chooses their advisor, Prof. Right.

Call me cynical, but six and a half times out of ten, advisors turn out to be that guy your Mom warned you about. It is not that advisors want to be mean. It just so happens that after years and years of dealing with students, bean counting funding agencies, over-critical paper reviewers, school administrators and financially disappointed family members, the only people they feel almighty over, are their PhD students.

Since, churning anecdotes is my favorite thing, here’re some.

In an unnamed school, an unnamed advisor had forbidden, his unnamed student, to return to his home-country to visit his critically ill father-in-law, Mr. Patel. There is no need to take leave to meet distant relatives. Try telling your wife that her parents are nothing but distant relatives who don’t concern you!

In another unnamed school, another unnamed advisor made his student work 7 days a week, without a break, for 15 hrs everyday. The student was from one of those troubled countries who couldn’t just visit home, on a whim. He sent for his mom, to meet him after 5 years. In the two weeks she was visiting, his advisor let him stay home for just one weekend!

I know, I am known to see the worst in people, and there are advisors who treat their students with respect and consideration. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that the system relies a lot on the relationship between students and their advisors. And such a system is too delicate to not cause any stress.

PhD research is a demon in itself. It is not always easy for students to transition from the receiving end, of education, to being the ones who are finding new things about a subject matter. One can spend 5-6 years on a project and end up with no result, or be told that someone has already published a paper on the same problem she/he has been pursuing. It is not uncommon to find PhD students, in their final years, to reach a state of impasse. Often students show symptoms of, what is called, an impostor syndrome . Feeling like they are frauds, pretending to be intellectuals, in academia. With constant intimidation from advisors and bleak job prospects, this feeling is quite understandably reinforced. Questioning, ones’ decision to pursue a PhD, becomes a common theme among students.

With this much overwhelming cynicism, disappointment, intimidation and overall disillusionment, how can a PhD student keep up with demands of the program?

According to a study, at University of California at Berkeley , nearly 47% of surveyed PhD students showed signs of depression, highest numbers being in the humanities and arts departments. Nearly 10% of them had even contemplated suicide during their program.

The root of these depressive feelings are related to their PhD in more ways than one. Feelings of disillusionment, are also woven into the feelings that lead to depression. Uncertainty in future job prospects, financial instability, isolation, lack of clear academic progress, not feeling valued, strained relationship with advisor, health and sleep deprivation, all add fuel to the fire.

How then, can a student seek help? One can begin to answer by suggesting a few things.  

How to manage Phd Stress, Anxiety and Disillusionment

1. have a social life.

It is absolutely essential to have friends/agreeable family as a support system. You can always find this one gal/guy who is always in the lab, in the library, reading papers, studying. While still being an excellent means to complete ones’ PhD a year before others, it can make such a student unable to define her/his existence beyond the program. In its worst form, it can even lead to depression.  

2. Cultivate Hobbies and Interests

I got hooked on carpentry and old TV shows, during my PhD. In fact I know enough American criminal law, from Law & Order , to arraign and prosecute any psychopathic murderer…as long as they confess. Hobbies are an excellent medium to channel ones’ frustrations away. Hobbies are a well-suggested means of countering stress and depression. It takes care of the constant obsessive pattern of research, that students subject themselves to.  

3. Stay Healthy

PhD students are notorious in treating their health as secondary. Sleeping 3-4 hours, keeping odd hours, surviving on cheap and low quality food, and stressing way too much. All this comes at the cost of a healthy body. Stress, being a self-feeding phenomenon, makes it easy to prey on constitutionally weak students.  

4. Improve relationship with advisor

During my PhD at Michigan State University, I was blessed with an excellent advisor who, however, was not beyond the occasional loss of temper. After one such occasion, I had gone back to his office, later, to tell him that I couldn’t continue working for him if I was going to be scared of his temper all the time.

And amazingly, he apologized. I, who had never spoken my mind to another Professor, before in India, wasn’t expecting to be apologized to.

But I learnt a lesson from that episode. Professors are just humans, not aliens with superpowers. An honest confrontation could possibly be their kryptonite.

With an open relationship, with ones’ advisor, a student can begin to address the feelings of inadequacy in her/his work. With that, will come, confidence and the much needed self reliance.  

5. Have a Plan B

What if academia is not your thing? You can get a PhD and still decide to go do something else. The web is full of career change stories . Having some plan to fall back on, can be the reassurance needed to carry on and not be stressed about the what-ifs .  

6. Don’t be afraid to seek help

Follow some simple steps to manage stress, as has been summarized in the articles, 5-a day stress management techniques or 15 stress management tips . Talk to friends/family and seek counseling, at the University health facilities or avail of a free online counseling startup facility .

In the end, PhD is an ambitious and challenging program. The optimum qualities, for success, are determined by many factors, many of which are beyond hard-work and intellect.

PhD students have more to gain by learning how to keep themselves from getting carried away with stress and doubt. One can then hope to still keep up with the optimism, one started with, and leave that much-desired mark, and not a stain, in academia.

3 thoughts on “How to manage Phd stress, anxiety and disillusionment”

Very useful article! Interestingly, these constitute a healthy practice at any stage of life. We have a tendency of taking ourselves seriously, perhaps, a little too seriously. And that too in our familiar and comfortable constructs, whatever those may be. For me, the entire phD-experience kept shattering this, repeatedly. With some combination of the above, it was possible to improvise and adapt, to the point that stress could induce creativity, almost a Pavlovian one.

At any rate, for me, phD and managing through it would remain as a trailer to how life in the real world is.

@rakhi, How can you have the patience for post doc. Am confused between phd and ms because i think i may not have the endurance for phd though i like that option

The answer is so subjective, Ronit. All I can tell you is that whatever program decision you make, you should be looking into its benefits after you get the degree. What field are you in? It always helps to see the career path that your seniors have followed. What job options are there post MS and/or post PhD? By what age would you be possibly graduating from your PhD (‘coz trust me, that matters)? And many more considerations that would be pertinent to your field, personality, institution, your adviser and so and so. I guess what you can do is identify your field of interest, talk to potential advisers, see if you think it is feasible in terms of time and money and then perhaps you will have more information to make the decision. Did that sound helpful?

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