2019-2020 Live Chat #1 - Anxiety in Academia and Transition to Industry (2014 LATP Alum)

[Diego Ordonez]

9 minutes ago, Javier Palma-Espinosa said:

UP

The lab that I was working was not prepared for this situation. The university has programs to help students with mental problems, but PIs usually do not put attention to this

[Julian Naizaque]

1 minute ago, Diego Ordonez said:

There was a moment that my lab problems move to my home problems. I started to have problems with my wife. I had poor communitcation with her. I started to talk with a psychiatrist, and he started a pharmacological treatment

Oh, that had to be tough! Do you think that a PhD programm has always such amount of work that it interpheres with a personal life? 

[Diego Ordonez]

2 minutes ago, Ricardo De Sousa said:

Do you think that it was anxiety? It seems to me that you were depressed for not being happy with what you were doing than having an anxiety issue

This was the diagnose of my therapist (psychiatrist)

[Javier Palma-Espinosa]

Just now, Diego Ordonez said:

The lab that I was working was not prepared for this situation. The university has programs to help students with mental problems, but PIs usually do not put attention to this

What did you learn from this? How can we talk with our PIs to put the attention into this issues?

[Alejandro Tapia De Jesus]

Hi Dr Ordonez, I´m from Mexico, I'm already in a Doctoral Program, my research is on sexual behavior, neurogenesis and psychostimulants.

My question is: how can we identify and deal with burn out symtoms?

[Diego Ordonez]

Just now, Julian Naizaque said:

Oh, that had to be tough! Do you think that a PhD programm has always such amount of work that it interpheres with a personal life? 

a PhD program requires a lot of work. However, this varies from lab to lab. Other thing is that it is important to work in lab where you can create social bond with your colleagues, that give you support

[Ricardo Augusto Leoni de Sousa]

2 minutes ago, Diego Ordonez said:

This was the diagnose of my therapist (psychiatrist)

Did you go to any other psychiatrist? Or did you accept and stayed with the first analysis?

[Stephanie Vose]

This live chat is scheduled to end at 1pm ET. Feel free to continue the conversation if you're available! 

 

[Diego Ordonez]

2 minutes ago, Javier Palma-Espinosa said:

What did you learn from this? How can we talk with our PIs to put the attention into this issues?

for a PhD program or any work.....we have to practice awareness. If we live in an automatic pilot every day we do not now what is happening. So, meditation is important to me. Once your are aware of the problem you can start a conversation with your PI and explain that your problem also affects the performance of the lab

[Juan Zegers]

1 minute ago, Diego Ordonez said:

a PhD program requires a lot of work. However, this varies from lab to lab. Other thing is that it is important to work in lab where you can create social bond with your colleagues, that give you support

i thinks that this is the main point of working in a lab, making strong bonds with your colleagues that let you tolarate the frustration when the things dont went well

[Diego Ordonez]

When ever you want you can send a email (ordatezp@ualberta.ca)

[Javier Palma-Espinosa]

Just now, Juan Zegers said:

i thinks that this is the main point of working in a lab, making strong bonds with your colleagues that let you tolarate the frustration when the things dont went well

we tend to this in our lab. We lunch together almost every day. We work in a computational neuroscience lab, so each of us is with his/her headphones working alone. However, during lunch, is our time together and we discuss and talk about our issues. That has helped us a lot

[Ricardo Augusto Leoni de Sousa]

1 minute ago, Diego Ordonez said:

When ever you want you can send a email (ordatezp@ualberta.ca)

thanks for your time and for the live chat! Have a nice week!

[Juan Zegers]

2 minutes ago, Diego Ordonez said:

When ever you want you can send a email (ordatezp@ualberta.ca)

Thanks for your time!!!! it was a great discussion

[Diego Ordonez]

10 minutes ago, Alejandro Tapia De Jesus said:

Hi Dr Ordonez, I´m from Mexico, I'm already in a Doctoral Program, my research is on sexual behavior, neurogenesis and psychostimulants.

My question is: how can we identify and deal with burn out symtoms?

For me, meditation is crucial. Also, we should to talk with PI, family, and friends. 

[Diego Ordonez]

Thanks everybody for your attention. I hope, it was helpful

[Sofia Gallino]

thanks for your time!!!! nice to met you!!!

[Raquel Maria Campos]

Hi guys, I couldn't participate yesterday but I just read everything. Thanks for sharing your experience with us Diego.

[Isis Nem De Oliveira Souza]

On 12/16/2019 at 2:06 PM, Diego Ordonez said:

for a PhD program or any work.....we have to practice awareness. If we live in an automatic pilot every day we do not now what is happening. So, meditation is important to me. Once your are aware of the problem you can start a conversation with your PI and explain that your problem also affects the performance of the lab

Funnily enough, I could not participate on the live chat because I had an appointment with my psychologist! The word "autopilot" definitely resonates with me since 2019 was such an overwhelming year, specially in Brazil. Our political and economical situation has been difficult and scientific funding has suffered major cuts. That diminished our research possibilities in the lab as well as impacted our career prospects, which by itself causes a lot of anxiety in students. I think autopilot has been a coping mechanism for many of us. Thank you for sharing your experience with us and I hope 2020 bring us some light!