{"id":2904,"date":"2019-06-12T06:28:30","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T06:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:33:08","slug":"phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat","title":{"rendered":"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat"},"content":{"rendered":"

As motivated as I was last Monday to\u00a0\u201cget back to the grind,\u201d that sort of fell through. Turns out, sometimes willpower alone isn\u2019t enough when it comes to trying to climb out of a mental health dip; you need time and support. I don\u2019t even remember much of last week, it all feels a bit clouded; I\u2019m sure I did\u00a0something<\/i>\u00a0productive, just not sure what that was.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I do, however, remember sitting next to an injured rat for two hours on Tuesday, most of which I spent crying because I felt like no one else in the world gave a shirt, and the reason I sat there so long was because I was waiting for an\u00a0RSPCA<\/a>\u00a0officer, who unfortunately didn\u2019t arrive before I forced my frozen and sad self home. I don\u2019t know what happened to the rat; all I know is that I tried everything I could to help. So, that knocked me down a bit. What made the situation even worse was that I left work a couple of hours earlier than usual so I could take it easy on myself \u2013 that failed!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a friend of mine, who is in their final year of PhD, told me that they spent the start of the week curled up in a ball crying\/screaming out of frustration from how much they just wanted their PhD to end already. As bad as it sounds, it made me feel better about my setbacks, less alone (I did put together a self-care pack for them with chocolate, gin, and body care stuff, so I\u2019m not\u00a0that\u00a0<\/i>bad).<\/p>\n

The one thing I do know is that I cannot keep going on like this, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible to have a fail-safe state of mind during a PhD and so, instead I\u2019m going to do whatever it takes to keep myself afloat.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For me, this currently means:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Talking to my supervisors about the way I feel (I\u2019m not one to shy away from sensitive topics).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Dragging my butt into work even when I don\u2019t want to (it\u2019s never not been worth it).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Doing lots more exercise (the best medicine).\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Spending less time on my phone (better focus).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Spending more time in nature (so I feel like I can breathe again).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I\u2019m definitely motivated enough; so here\u2019s hoping my next week\u2019s post is more positive.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    P.S. Can it be summer already?<\/p>\n

    P.S.S. For anyone suffering with depression\/anxiety or knows someone that is (aka everyone) I highly recommend Matt Haig\u2019s book\u00a0\u2018Reasons to stay alive<\/a>.\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

    Anastasia Doronina is a PhD researcher in Water Engineering. This story was published on February 11, 2019, on Anastasia\u2019s blog, <\/i>The Diary of a PhD Student<\/i><\/a> (available <\/i>here<\/i><\/a>), and has been republished here with her permission.<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As motivated as I was last Monday to\u00a0\u201cget back to the grind,\u201d that sort of fell through. Turns out, sometimes willpower alone isn\u2019t enough when it comes to trying to climb out of a mental health dip; you need time and support. I don\u2019t even remember much of last week, it all feels a bit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1484,"featured_media":33313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2414],"tags":[2678,2666,2454],"new_categories":[],"new_tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-researcher-stories","tag-mental-health-in-academia","tag-phd-life","tag-researcher-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anastasia Doronina is a PhD researcher in Water Engineering. Here, she talks about the steps she's taking to get herself through a mental health dip as she pursues her PhD.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anastasia Doronina is a PhD researcher in Water Engineering. Here, she talks about the steps she's taking to get herself through a mental health dip as she pursues her PhD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Editage Insights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-12T06:28:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-15T06:33:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/PhD-bound-Doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat-Resized.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"656\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anastasia Doronina\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Editage\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anastasia Doronina\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anastasia Doronina\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/55a7434aeee47416e7ba9a4833fc9636\"},\"headline\":\"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-12T06:28:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-15T06:33:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat\"},\"wordCount\":489,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Mental Health in Academia\",\"PhD Life\",\"Researcher Stories\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Researchers and Their Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505\",\"name\":\"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-12T06:28:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-15T06:33:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"Anastasia Doronina is a PhD researcher in Water Engineering. Here, she talks about the steps she's taking to get herself through a mental health dip as she pursues her PhD.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp\",\"width\":656,\"height\":336},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Editage Insights\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Editage Insights\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Editage\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/55a7434aeee47416e7ba9a4833fc9636\",\"name\":\"Anastasia Doronina\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c00991e35a00fd565fddd84c296ba46144f0965040516ea786b5716137c74940?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c00991e35a00fd565fddd84c296ba46144f0965040516ea786b5716137c74940?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anastasia Doronina\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/anastasia-doronina\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat","description":"Anastasia Doronina is a PhD researcher in Water Engineering. Here, she talks about the steps she's taking to get herself through a mental health dip as she pursues her PhD.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat","og_description":"Anastasia Doronina is a PhD researcher in Water Engineering. Here, she talks about the steps she's taking to get herself through a mental health dip as she pursues her PhD.","og_url":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505","og_site_name":"Editage Insights","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","article_published_time":"2019-06-12T06:28:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-15T06:33:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":656,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/PhD-bound-Doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat-Resized.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anastasia Doronina","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Editage","twitter_site":"@Editage","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anastasia Doronina","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat"},"author":{"name":"Anastasia Doronina","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/55a7434aeee47416e7ba9a4833fc9636"},"headline":"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat","datePublished":"2019-06-12T06:28:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-15T06:33:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat"},"wordCount":489,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","keywords":["Mental Health in Academia","PhD Life","Researcher Stories"],"articleSection":["Researchers and Their Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/phd-bound-doing-whatever-it-takes-to-keep-myself-afloat","url":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505","name":"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","datePublished":"2019-06-12T06:28:30+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-15T06:33:08+00:00","description":"Anastasia Doronina is a PhD researcher in Water Engineering. Here, she talks about the steps she's taking to get herself through a mental health dip as she pursues her PhD.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/editage-insights-generic-banner_298.webp","width":656,"height":336},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/streamacademe.tumblr.com\/post\/182734872466\/week-73-day-505#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"PhD-bound: Doing whatever it takes to keep myself afloat"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","name":"Editage Insights","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#organization","name":"Editage Insights","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/editage-insights-logo-1-scaled.webp","width":2560,"height":324,"caption":"Editage Insights"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Editage","https:\/\/x.com\/Editage"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/55a7434aeee47416e7ba9a4833fc9636","name":"Anastasia Doronina","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c00991e35a00fd565fddd84c296ba46144f0965040516ea786b5716137c74940?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c00991e35a00fd565fddd84c296ba46144f0965040516ea786b5716137c74940?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anastasia Doronina"},"url":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/anastasia-doronina"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1484"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"new_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_categories?post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"new_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_tags?post=2904"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.editage.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=2904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}