1 in 3 or even 1 in 2 university or PhD students or academics report mild to serious mental health illnesses including depression, anxiety, burnout and suicidal thoughts.* This podcast explores this “mental health crisis”, because;
A big problem for all of us working in academia and pursuing academic endeavors: Stress that is created internally.
Criticism is deeply internalised and institutionalised in our profession, because science advances via critique and constant improvement at the expense of shattering the world we knew previously. We stand on thin ice: nothing is certain in science, we know something to be true only until someone else comes and proves that that thing was false.
This constant criticism that makes it possible for science to advance, can have a totally destructive side as well. Over time, this intrinsic criticism distorts our perspective of the world and drives us to become perfectionists. And perfectionism can be a fertile breeding ground for mental health disorders.
In other words, an analytical and critical mind is an amazing strength that we have as academics. But the overuse of a strength does become a weakness: We develop an overly critical and judgemental attitude towards ourselves and overwork the muscle of systematic criticism.
Today’s tip:
Whenever you realise that you’re going down the road of extreme self-criticism, try and approach yourself just like your best friend would. (I’m assuming that your best friend is a nice, caring and compassionate person here.) What would your best friend say to you? Would he or she be as harsh on you as you are harsh on yourself? Would he or she remind you of all the instances that you did great?
Cited in this episode:
* Paul Gorczynski, “More academics and students have mental health problems than ever before”, February 22, 2018: https://theconversation.com/more-academics-and-students-have-mental-health-problems-than-ever-before-90339
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