Let’s talk about PhD student well-being

I’m in the forth year of my PhD. By now, I’ve struggled with a lot of (self-imposed) stress, lack of resilience, sudden crying, and the feeling of being completely overwhelmed. I’ve seen colleagues going in and out of burnout, experiencing impostor phenomenon and being sabotaged by their perfectionism.

In short – PhD well-being is an issue of concern and although there is more and more attention for the topic, we’re far from there.

This is why we as a PhD council of the Behavioural and Social Science Faculty at the University of Groningen want to discuss work-life balance with fellow PhDs. As a basis, we are providing some resources that are already out there for PhD well-being – so I wanted to share them here as well:

First, Zoë Ayres just published a book about PhD well-being as a Survival Guide (see photo) as an addition the work she has already done online on her website.

Beyond that, there is the PhD Life Raft podcast, with among others an episode on stress and one on self-care as a PhD student.

And also in the academic Podcast Everything Hertz, work-life balance was a topic in one episode.

I hope this already helps to some extent and might be useful resources for anyone who might read this! You’re not alone in this.