COMPASS Mind Switzerland

We can only benefit by talking openly about anxiety and depression in graduate students, as they are experienced by approximately 15-30% of them, more than we perceive.

Are anxiety and depression, or panic attacks more frequent in people working in academia with respect to the rest of the population?

And what are sources of stress that are peculiar to academia and not found elsewhere? Trying to give an answer to these questions, and providing resources to best cope with anxiety and depression were the main goals of our second “Neurodiversity-Mental Health” seminar series.

The audience—PhDs and PostDocs at Unibas—in a safe and intimate environment had two moments where they could share their own experiences with a group of peers. The people that attended the talk highly appreciated these safe spaces, as they gave them the opportunity to break the ice on a subject still perceived too often as a taboo and to bond with colleagues with similar experiences, creating connections potentially lasting beyond the seminar.

Anxiety and depression in our work environments

It has been interesting but not surprising to measure the existence of a perception bias—in an audience already sensitive to the topic—in how frequently the graduate population experiences anxiety or depression. While the attendees mostly reported numbers of the order of 10% in their respective environments, we examined together most recent literature which instead assesses percentages between 15% and 30%. This demonstrates the importance of talking about it and shedding light on a topic that affects more people than what many of us think.

Some questions as an exercise for the reader:

Think about your research group or colleagues.

• How many people are there in total?
• How many of these experienced anxiety or depression because of their academic career?
• Does your percentage fit with the literature’s numbers?

Anxiety and depression as a result of stress

We discussed together why academia can be a more stressful environment too. Some, for example, can be fuelled by a strong passion which can lead them to work over hours, to immerse themselves in their work and ultimately to bind their own identity to being a researcher.

While it can work great for some, these behaviours can pose a risk to mental health.

Some questions as an exercise for the reader:

• Do you introduce yourself primarily as a scientist/researcher?
• What would you be doing if not science?
• Would your ego/self-identity stay together if you would quit?

Other stressors we discussed that are often recurrent in the scientific literature are the PI-student relationship, the challenges of working abroad and working in highly multicultural environments. Finally, is it possible to uncouple the inherent difficulty of doing science and research with the difficulties related to the academic environment?

We did not pretend to give an answer to such a complex question, but rather to stress and underline some peculiarities of academic environments. We ended the seminar with a list of resources and of possible actions to start a path to feel better, taking doubts and questions from the audience on the topics of counselling, help lines, and whether one should open up with colleagues or the PI.

Final questions for the reader:

• Have you ever been a confident with a colleague of yours on the topic of mental health?
• And vice versa, have you ever opened up with a colleague about your own struggles?

To conclude, it has been an event at which participants appreciated the opportunity to open up and connect with others, where they felt their feelings accepted and where they realised, both from scientific literature and other’s experiences, that they are not alone.

Thanks for reading, you can find here a handout of the seminar.

The seminar was organised by Compass in collaboration with Avuba, the representative association of PhDs, PostDocs and staff of University of Basel, and was held by Pietro Vahramian, whom you can contact via Linkedin or via email (first name dot second name at gmail dot com, or at unibas dot ch).

Where to get help

You can find information under our resources tab. If you or somebody you know needs immediate help or is in an emergency situation, call 144 or go to the walk-in clinic of the Universitäre Psychiatrische Kliniken, Kornhausgasse 7, 4051 Basel, (both for emergencies and, during the day, as acute outpatient clinic).

To chat anonymously with a trained person, you can use the 143 helpline at 0800 143 000 (from 18 to 23) in English or 143 in German, French, Italian (24/7). 

If you want to start with talk therapy, you can ask your doctor. You could also consider online therapy, as this could better match your culture or language.