Flourish:
An Electronic Newsletter for Scholarly Writers
December
2006
vol.
2, no. 12
Depression and writers
have a long intertwined history. Scholarly writers in particular
face challenges in maintaining mental health. They frequently
work in stressful conditions where their future employment
is uncertain and their current earnings are not sufficient.
They often live among strangers, because they are new to
the university or aren't from the dominant culture. Compounding
this for many is the increasingly unstable international
situation. Those with a disposition toward depression may
find that these stressful conditions trigger feelings of
anxiety and hopelessness, as well as an inability to concentrate
or feel rested.
In a recently published
study
of over 3,000 graduate students at the University of
California at Berkeley, almost half reported having had
an emotional or stress-related problem over the past year.
Two out of five reported feeling exhausted and 46% reported
feeling overwhelmed "frequently" or "all
of the time." Those who reported mental health needs
were most often those who had been in school the longest
and were in very competitive programs. They were also more
likely to lack financial stability, supportive advisors,
or regular contact with friends and family. The study found
that while many felt comfortable consulting their university's
psychological services, quite a few were reluctant to do
so.
The authors recommended
that all needed to work to reduce the stigma on asking for
help, that faculty advisors needed to be rewarded for supporting
their students, and that universities needed to help students
make connections and find support networks. To learn more
about depression, see the National
Institute of Mental Health .
Cartoon
for the Day
Feeling down? Check
out Piled
Higher and Deeper , the graduate student comic strip
produced by Jorge Cham. It includes links to other funny
sites and a graduate student discussion forum
with about 1700 registered users. The creator can be
booked to speak
at campuses about “the guilt, the myth, and the power
of procrastination.”
Productivity
Tip
Many
of us get distracted. We sit down to write and find an hour
later that we are doing something else entirely. Or we sit
down to write and find ourselves fussing with the same paragraph
instead of moving on. One trick that I've found helpful
is to set my computer virus and spyware checks for certain
times. I have a daily schedule of writing from about 9:00
am to noon, with only half an hour allotted to checking
email from 8:30 to 9:00 am. So, I set my spyware sweeper
to start scanning automatically at 9:00 am so that if I
am still on email then, I know to get off and start writing.
Similarly, I have my virus software automatically start
scanning at 11:00 am, to remind me that I only have an hour
left and I need to get a move on. Seeing the dialog box
pop up is a blunt reminder to ask myself if I am where I
am supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
(If you don't run a virus or spyware checker, start! Check
out Lifehacker
for more information.)
Thought
for the Day
Keep
an essay's argument open; don't sew it up so tight that
it immediately springs leaks.
