I have struggled with mental health most of my adult life. There, I said it. I am a human being, one who has worked all of my life, gained two degrees, has lots of friends, and a good family. Looking in from the outside, I appear to be well-rounded, a tad eccentric, enthusiastic, caring, with […]
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I remember being a young teenager and hesitatingly explaining from my school desk why – uncharacteristically – I hadn’t produced any homework. It was my favourite lesson on a subject that held such fascination for me that it would later become the focus of my academic work. All I could say was that my family had had […]
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An anonymous blogger shares their experiences of being discriminated against and bullied due to their mental health issues. Is mental illness nothing more than an inconvenient expense for university departments?
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An anonymous contributors reflects on their experiences of schizophrenia during their PhD and their nevertheless successful journey to a permanent academic job.
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An anonymous PhD student discusses how Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the pressures of academia have led them to become addicted to painkillers. Are academics prone to socially acceptable addictions?
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An early-career academic writes about their struggles with depression and chronic anxiety.
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16 April 2014, The Guardian Higher Education Network. I wrote this opinion piece in response to the ongoing debates about mental health issues in academia.
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One of the hardest things about hearing about a PhD student who was harassed by a lecturer, and who then committed suicide while the lecturer kept his job, was that I wasn’t surprised. It’s not that I didn’t think the story was horrendous – I did. It’s that like most graduate students I am reminded […]
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An anonymous academic recounts their encounters with stress and anxiety towards the end of their PhD.
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The current focus on mental health in academia is a topic that has always been close to my heart. I suffered from bouts of depression and mania for all of my teenage years and was officially diagnosed as bi-polar in my undergraduate degree. I look back on this period and thank my lucky stars that […]
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Bethan Jones writes about the relationship between her self harm and her doctoral research.
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Mara Suttmann-Lea, a PhD researcher in the US, shares her journey through physical and mental health problems during her studies.
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6 March 2014, The Guardian Higher Education Network. I was invited to comment on academia and mental health for this article.
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An anonymous contributor reflects on the relationship between love and academia, and on whether the former can really be applied to our work.
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Vicki Adams is a PhD student in English Literature, and shares her insight into what it’s like to go through higher education as a sufferer of abuse and trauma.
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An anonymous contributor shares the positives and negatives of working in academia with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
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An anonymous contributor shares their experiences of suffering and recovering from anorexia during their PhD.
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