Survival Skills for the Graduate Student

I'll love any talk that opens with quoted music (Making it up as I go along) and some really astounding figures, this held very true for this session.

Shannon Duvall (Elon University) and Michele Pagnotta (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) ran a really interesting session on 'Survival Skills for the Graduate Student' aiming to give hints and tips to help improve mental well-being during graduate school.

The statistics are impressive.  From the 2004 Berkeley Graduate Student Mental Health Survey:

• 50% of graduate* students suffer from emotional or stress-related issues
• 10% seriously considered suicide
• 1 in 20 considered it

I plan to delve into those figures later (might be interesting for stimulating discussion with the first year PhD class I lead), but that is an amazing and worrying finding.

They started by talking through Michele's Top Tips:

• Wise Mind (make decisions you are really happy with, by keeping a balance in your mind between emotion and reason)
• Acting Effectively (do things that will work, most effective.  Don't use SHOULD.)
• Don't Worry, be happy (worrying is not problem solving)

And then Shannon's Top Tips:

• Focus on the Facts (don't worry about Imposter Syndrome, not provable, not a fact)
• Advisor Relations (ever-evolving, professional, vital to your happiness and success)
• Be Professional (it's ok to have worries and doubts, but don't forget to keep your academic relationships professional)

Further advice:

• Set Your Goals and document your activities and meetings
• How to Ask for things (Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce)
• Communication with advisors (ask directly for positive feedback)
• (Everyone was told to write down) MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS (ask, ask, ask)
• Act Confident (you don't need to be confident, you just need to 'act' confident)
• Getting Motivated (remember that progress comes in waves, intentionally take breaks)
• Get Going Again (clarify goals, prioritise and break down)
• Review your Work Schedule
• Gaining Motivation (develop small, medium and large rewards, guild-free breaks and cheerleading statements)

They gave an interesting introduction to the five areas involved in keeping your vital life balance (in order of importance):

• Personal Growth / Care
• Relational Growth
• Community Growth
• Spiritual Growth
• Professional Growth

You don't have time not to take these things not into account - they are critical to your mental health.  Keep yourself physically healthy and relax to reduce stress.  Make sure to attend to current relationships, it is a priority goal.

All in all, sensible and useful advice.  It is really worth visiting the Mental Makeover website, where they have a downloadable handout related to the session.

A lot of people rushed to queue to ask questions when they opened the floor, with more eagerness than I had seen in any other session so far.  What they spoke about had related in some way to everyone in the audience.

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* The term graduate is equivalent to post-graduate in the UK - an interesting difference and a grammatical mystery worth pondering at another time.

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Johanna Hunt
Official GHC 2007 Blogger
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