A mental health crisis in science
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A mental health crisis in science
1–10 of 212 posts
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#2Have been in research 20 years, and cultures vary dramatically by group.
Scientists also seem to be more anxiety prone than the general population. Also, it doesn't help if you take your work too seriously.
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#3It seems like this is a symptom of a larger problem, rates of anxiety and depression have been going up in recent years in pretty much every facet. I always hear that social media is to blame, but I wonder if that is really the case? I feel like something else is going on, maybe it's just a totality of smaller issues rather than one big problem.
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#4It seems like this is a symptom of a larger problem, rates of anxiety and depression have been going up in recent years in pretty much every facet. I always hear that social media is to blame, but I wonder if that is really the case? I feel like something else is going on, maybe it's just a totality of smaller issues rather than one big problem.
Social media does sound like a decent theory though. To your point, the issues plaguing the US ( and indeed the world ) have not changed that much over the past four decades. What did change is relative access to information, which exacerbated and maybe even hastened some trends. The small factors were always there, but were not as commonly seen for a variety of reasons ( social stigma, exposure to media, 'toughen up' message from society being but a few examples off the top of my ehad ). And even now, we only are aware of it as a potential trend due to social media exposure ( in this case, HN ). Would we be as aware of it even 10 years ago?
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#5Low pay and an insecure job. It's like a pyramid scheme and many end up either forced to leave science or remain an eternal postdoc, and in countries like Germany postdoc funding is restricted once you reach a certain career stage so even the eternal postdoc isn't an option.
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#6It seems like this is a symptom of a larger problem, rates of anxiety and depression have been going up in recent years in pretty much every facet. I always hear that social media is to blame, but I wonder if that is really the case? I feel like something else is going on, maybe it's just a totality of smaller issues rather than one big problem.
I definitely think social media has a large share in driving down the mental health of the majority of users. No two lives are comparable, yet it induces people to compare their lives to someone else's often resulting in an unreasonable amount of envy, jealousy, and a general dissatisfaction of their lives. People pick their best moments while sharing, but it's never the true picture. It sets unrealistic expectations.
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#7Low pay and an insecure job. It's like a pyramid scheme and many end up either forced to leave science or remain an eternal postdoc, and in countries like Germany postdoc funding is restricted once you reach a certain career stage so even the eternal postdoc isn't an option.
And graduate students will be the last ones to receive a "pay raise" or even cost-of-living adjustment, I am certain.
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#8Others are hinting at the same thing, but toxic culture (by itself) is probably only part of the problem.
If a single research job is toxic, that's stressful in the short term, but will just motivate someone to leave eventually; stress relieved.
If the entire 'industry' is toxic, there's no job change that can relieve the stress. Also, research jobs are attained after people make some hard-to-reverse decisions about money, time investment, and lifestyle. If someone is in loads of student debt, has spent a decade learning a very niche topic that can't be easily leveraged elsewhere and doesn't have enough money to just quit and be okay, it's easy to see where the stress comes from, and it doesn't seem easily resolved.
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#9When I was a post grad I could make less than I would at McDonalds for work I was volontold to do.
I did the smart thing and quit. When you select for people who don't do the smart thing and want to be exploited in exchange for prestige they get exploited.
Re: A mental health crisis in science
#10When I was a post grad I could make less than I would at McDonalds for work I was volontold to do. I did the smart thing and quit. When you select for people who don't do the smart thing and want to be exploited in exchange for prestige they get exploited.
Whenever these things come up, I'm always grateful toward my past self who opted out of academia and pursued industry. The entire system of placing your fate in the hands of disinterested, self motivated, senior faculty and researchers seemed very risky to me at the time. Plus the money has been nice. But I do feel like I missed out on some intellectual growth. YMMV.