In the last few days I gained a lot of followers (Thank you!). I noticed that many of them are academics and in particular PhD student.
In my last posts I went through some of the wins and losses I experienced during my PhD.
This is a thread on mental health and academia (1/n)

In 2019 I was a third year (unfounded) PhD student and I was working full time as lab technician for the same group in which I was doing the PhD.
I was dealing with the leukaemia diagnosis of my mom, a divorce, a pregnancy (from my new partner) (2/n)

My supervisor didn't have time for me (or any other PhD student/post doc in his group) and wasn't reading all the draft I was sending to him. (3/n)

In April, my mom died. The next day I wrote an email to my supervisor telling him what happened and that I needed time. I wanted to stay home and address my grief for a few weeks.
His reply: "Come back to work asap, if you work you won't think about what happened to you" (4/n)

This was just wrong.
I wanted to think.
I wanted to address my grief and pain.
I wanted to have time to understand and accept what happened to me.
I was 5 months pregnant and I couldn't even drink a couple of glasses of wine and cry.
I needed time. (5/n)

So, I wrote to the university HR, asking them to allow me to stay home. I proposed an unpaid leave for family reasons, but they didn't accept my proposal.
I called my family doctor and she wrote a medical certificate, which allowed me to stay home and rest (6/n)

My university doesn't provide psychological help for its students and/or staff, so I looked for a therapist.
I found an amazing professional, who helped me a lot.
My partner left his job to stay home with me and support me.
When our daughter was born, I was exhausted. (7/n)

I didn't want to be the sole responsible person for her life, I needed my body back, my mind back.
We decided to bottle-feed her and my partner was just wonderful.
He did E V E R Y T H I N G for me and for her (8/n)

At this point (beginning of 2020) I came back to my PhD and I "just" needed to write my thesis.

My supervisor didn't read a single word of it.

He just signed the form. (9/n)

My thesis was then evaluated by my university committee (no revisions needed) and by two external anonymous reviewers (no revisions for one reviewer and minor revisions for the second one). (10/n)

When the date of my PhD defence was decided I didn't write to me, the secretary told me the date.

I didn't want me to rehears my presentation and.... (11/n)

.... he wasn't there when I defended it!!

So, the moral of the story is:
- protect your mental health
- ask for help
- search the best therapist for you
- be a better supervisor

@OpenAcademics @PhDVoice @AcademicChatter #academicchatter #phd #phdchat #MentalHealth (12/12)