Anyone successfully completed a PhD?

[SarahH12]

Hi,

I'm due to start my PhD next month and am feeling a little anxious about the effect it will have on my MH. I have depression, anxiety and BPD. Last time I was in university I found it really tough going on my MH. My MH is significantly better now but it's still not great. I know the process of obtaining a PhD is really tough going. Has anyone here succeeded in getting one? If so do you have any tips on how to cope with it all?

Yes, me, and I am now Dr Macron . I won't inflict on you the gory details of my MH history. But my advice would be

• believe in yourself, and act confident even if you don't feel it. YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!
• use the flexibility of PhD study to learn more about your strengths, and focus on working in ways that suit you best
• if your MH has left gaps in your work CV and/or life experience, try and use your PhD to address these

PhD studies are certainly stressful, but being aware of this ahead of time and planning for how you will identify and manage any crunches will help.

Most unis have counselling and wellbeing services (I had made a serious suicide attempt shortly before starting my phd) and was able to access weekly counselling which really helped me.

A colleague with MH challenges did her PhD at the same time as me, can't speak for her management strategies but she did go part time towards the end (which many people do for financial reasons anyway).

Perhaps good to focus on where you want PhD to take you to keep motivated through tough times. I always wanted to stay in academia and now am a uni Lecturer (teaching and research) working alongside my former PhD supervisor!

Have had MH ups and downs since PhD too (pnd, ocd) so think of coping strategies as more of a lifetime plan than just for PhD days (I have had further counselling and cbt since my PhD days). Good luck and enjoy it! There will be highs as well as lows!

I did it and I'm not gonna lie it took it's toll on my mental health. There were other factors - pnd, bereavement and serious illness in my writing up year. But truly the best years of my life.

My advice is to reach out to peers. I was lab based so in some ways this was easier than a humanities PhD. We took it in turns to have meltdowns and support each other. Knowing I wasn't alone in feeling overwhelmed helped a great deal.

A good supervisor is vital and I absolutely would have given up on my PhD if it wasn't for mine. Not all my colleagues were so fortunate and I'm not sure I'd have coped.

I no longer work in research and I miss it greatly. I dont use my PhD but it was the best thing I've ever done.

I completed my PHD before my first episode (bipolar), but I'm now an academic. I agree with PP about counselling services and disability services.

Thank you all for your responses. I'm so scared of screwing up.

I think adding to the stress is the fact we want to start ttc soon. I've no idea how we'll cope with PhD and baby!

I had to abandon mine due to MH issues. One of the biggest hurdles I hadn't anticipated was that Citalopram made my mental faculties like fudge. My brain just vanished and was replaced by a cosy, wooly, confused simple thing. So I came off it to try and clear my head, with disastrous results.

I don't want to scare monger. But i would suggest at very least doing your PhD part time if you have a baby and MH issues. MH is hard to deal with alongside PhD pressures, as there's so much self-evaluation, harsh criticism and lonliness inherent in the phD process. Not saying it's impossible. I have plans to return to mine and complete it, but I'd grossly underestimated how stressful and lonely a road it was. In the end I realised it wasn't worth risking my health with the added stress of it.

A couple of tips: Be really really honest with yourself if you don't have appropriate supervision. Jump in and sort it out as early as p[ossible. Struggling along with a supervisor who's not a specilaist in your field or even interested in your research question won't help. It's surprisingly common. Be proactive.

Take proper breaks. Put additional support in place (eg ieso online CBT) for times when the going gets tough.

Good luck. I hope you fare better than I did!

BTW, if you do fail and withdraw, it's not the end of the world. I felt so humiliated at the time. But a year later had a far more prestigious teaching post than I'd ever imagined, with or without a phD.

How much flexibility is there with submission dates? Mine says the absolute last date is 30th September 2021. Can this change for maternity leave / part time plans?

I completed a PhD and it was HARD. I struggled with depression too. I am proud of myself for finally getting there, but it was hard enough just looking after myself, never mind a baby! Not sure I'd want to mix the two....

I have a PhD and have struggled with depression. I actually loved doing it as I had the time to really delve into something I loved, and felt excited by what I was doing. It can be tough sometimes, but I think it helps to break it down into manageable chunks in your head so it's not as overwhelming. You 100% can do it despite MH issues.

Another PhD survivor here! Mine was lab based, and I did all my work (including reading papers and writing up) in the lab - there were some long days, though it wasn't insane. It meant I could leave the PhD behind when I went home; that boundary was helpful for me.

I did my PhD (long) before having DD. Combining the two isn't something I'd recommend if you can avoid it - I didn't have a great pregnancy, so was exhausted most of the time, and it only got worse when DD came along - for the first 6 months I couldn't think clearly, and felt I'd lost myself (DH took over the nights at this point).

If you do want to combine the two, then I'd suggest discussing maternity leave (you probably won't be able to do much for the first 6 months at least) with your supervisor earlier rather than later - which would hopefully mean a deferred final submission date. Don't delude yourself that you'll be able to write up and care for a baby; you will need childcare if you're to do more than a couple of hours a day.

Sorry if that's a bit negative, but being realistic now may well help you down the line.