managing one's own mental health in grad school

[psychababble33]

I'm a clinical psychology PhD student (almost finished!), and I've been struggling with depression and generalized anxiety disorder for years. Recently, things have gotten a lot worse due to environmental/life stress factors, and I'm barely managing to complete my daily activities, let alone any work on my research. I'm in a lull period of my work, where I don't have anything urgently due, so it hasn't become obvious to others just how bad it's gotten. If I did have the same workload I had a few years ago, though, it would be unmanageable now.

My advisor knows that I'm struggling and has been supportive, telling me that it's alright to lay low now (I was extremely productive during early graduate school, so my lack of productivity at present isn't make-or-break for me career-wise), and that I'll get back into the swing of things eventually. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop; I just keep imagining that some day everyone will see how bad things have gotten, and I'll be marked a failure, and it'll be too late. FWIW, I'm on medication and in therapy, which help some, but not much.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else had been through a similar situation, or if you know someone who has, and how it worked out for you (or them). It's a very lonely place to be, and I think this is probably the most concentrated number of psychology grad students on the internet, so...

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[psych844]

I'm not in the situation, so not sure what the best approach is, but hopefully others here who have dealt with it can offer a perspective.

All I'd say is that sometimes the most useful thing is to realize that on some level your anxiety is normal, and that it's ok if some days you feel awful...but realize that how you feel one day does not have to dictate how you feel the next day. We all have bad days and great days...you are not alone. Go back and think about why you started a Phd, and how improved your situation will be once you are done grad school. (check out my thread on "would you do it again"..grad school is stressful for most people) Also realize you may just need a med switch, so have hope that a new drug will work for you and that your problem will be fine..maybe not today, but soon..so why worry? You only have so much energy, try to use that energy on the thing's you can control (doing the right things), and the rest should take care of itself.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Just wanted to point out that many might not reply to this because of concerns of potential ethical issues involved with answering questions about personal psychological illnesses and treatment. Another reason to not answer is you were asking about personal experience with mental illness. For myself, the doctoral program pushed me to my limits emotionally and psychologically and I did experience depressed mood and a lot of anxiety. Developing effective self-care is part of being a psychologist and I used whatever tools were available to cope. I have never had a problem with using skills and techniques that we want patients to use and applying them in my own life. I personally have used mindfulness, challenge irrational beliefs, social support, family support, community support group, community involvement, spiritual coping, behavioral activation, exposure therapy, interpersonal effectiveness skills, sleep hygiene. Pretty much everything that has been demonstrated to be effective.

 

[CheetahGirl]

Just wanted to point out that many might not reply to this because of concerns of potential ethical issues involved with answering questions about personal psychological illnesses and treatment. Another reason to not answer is you were asking about personal experience with mental illness. For myself, the doctoral program pushed me to my limits emotionally and psychologically and I did experience depressed mood and a lot of anxiety. Developing effective self-care is part of being a psychologist and I used whatever tools were available to cope. I have never had a problem with using skills and techniques that we want patients to use and applying them in my own life. I personally have used mindfulness, challenge irrational beliefs, social support, family support, community support group, community involvement, spiritual coping, behavioral activation, exposure therapy, interpersonal effectiveness skills, sleep hygiene. Pretty much everything that has been demonstrated to be effective.

Ditto.