Ep5_Mindfulness_ not some 'Buddhist chant'_Daniel Ranson.mp3
Ep5_Mindfulness_ not some 'Buddhist chant'_Daniel Ranson.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
Ep5_Mindfulness_ not some 'Buddhist chant'_Daniel Ranson.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Emily:
A quick warning before we start. This episode contains discussion of suicide. Please be mindful if you continue to listen and reach out for support, if you need it.
Emily:
Academia's rewarding, but it's also a huge challenge, it's too easy to feel invisible. Please, let's just talk about it all the difficult things you think you have to hide. I'm Emily and this is the Voices of Academia podcast. Each month you'll hear a conversation with a different researcher released in fortnightly episodes. First, you'll hear the story of mental health in academia. Then you'll learn how the experience was managed. You realize that actually you're not alone. There's a global community of researchers that want to talk about how hard this is. And how it could be better.
Emily:
Welcome back to Voices of Academia. I'm your host, Emily, a third year PhD student in Melbourne, Australia. Last episode, we heard the mental health story of Daniel, a PhD research fellow from London in the UK. Today, we'll hear how Daniel was supported through his experiences and how he's learned to manage his mental health. Welcome back, Daniel.
Dan:
Thanks for having me back, Emily.
Emily:
And so we talked a little bit last episode, I guess, on some of the support systems that you had during your experiences. So I thought maybe if you could describe, if you're comfortable, the CBT that you went through. I guess, first of all, if anyone that's not familiar, what is that and what are some of the things that you learned through that?
Dan:
Absolutely. So CBT is a cognitive behavioral therapy and it's the idea of taking some negative things that you have in your life. For example, the first thing I had CBT for was an obsessive compulsive disorder, OCD. And so we break down what the problems were and then focus on those problems and almost de-compartmentalize what actually is the problem, how to overcome the problem and how to make sure that problem doesn't come back again. So it's really a talking and thinking therapy and you actively work against yourself to de-rationalize and put importance on the problem at hand. And CBT was really helpful for me in the first stages and also the final stages of my experiences that I spoke about in the last episode. So at the beginning when I was looking at OCD tendencies and perfectionism and towards the end when I had lots of anxiety and just needed somebody to tell me and for me to work through the problems I was thinking about was just catastrophising and the problems weren't actually that big a deal when I was making a mountain out of a molehill. Of course, the problem for me was a big deal and that's why it was a problem.
Dan:
But in the grand scheme of things, once I broke it down and looked at the how to deal with it, it became much less of a problem that I was able to deal with on a daily basis. So I recommend CBT to anybody! It is a really great way of discovering lots about yourself, first and foremost, because ultimately, it is you doing the therapy, you're just being guided by a mental health practitioner as somebody who's been trained in the therapy. But ultimately, they'll give you homework and they help you to learn how to deal with the problem, which is important because you might overcome problems in the future that may arise and because you've had the training and you know how to help yourself in the future as well. So this means you don't have to go for CBT, for every problem you face. You learn CBT and refresh yourself in these sessions on how to deal with any problems that may be causing you to stress in your life. So CBT was a big factor in my treatment.
Emily:
So do you mind me asking how you found your therapist and also sort of what that experience was like?
Dan:
Yes, the therapists for me in the UK was given to me through the National Health Service. The I guess the same principle would be the same if you was to have private health insurance or something. You would approach a trained psychologist or treatment provider and basically have an assessment. First and foremost, that would be the first step whereby they actually see, are you a right candidate for CBT? So what's the problem at hand? They would look at your depression levels, anxiety levels, OCD levels, and actually find out what the problem is. CBT might not be right for you if, for example, you were severely depressed and you wouldn't be able to interact or engage with the active problems of determining how to get yourself better, you might not be engaged with that. So it might not be right. But for myself, with anxiety, OCD, it was definitely something that was good for me. So I had this assessment. They said, yeah, we can help you, we can overcome these problems. They again, they understood and compartmentalize my problems from perfectionism and also worrying about what other people thought of me. They were the main umbrella terms. And once that was sort of told to me in black and white, I think everybody likes a label as well. It makes you feel better knowing that you have something or something has happened and you feel almost comforted knowing that you have come and if you go to the doctors and have a blood test, you don't know what's wrong with you.
Dan:
And they say, sorry, we haven't got the results. It makes you feel worse. If they say it is this condition, you feel much better knowing that this label exists and having these two terms for me, perfectionism and worrying about what other people feel, ultimately clicked for me. My whole life has been about that. So that's what we work towards in these sessions. And the therapist was really, really great. I mean, they're trying to be impartial and not judge and understand that mental health is an illness and you can't help feeling or saying the things that you are, and I guess just like you Emily, maybe you should be a CBT therapist because you are so open and nonjudgmental. They sit back and they listen to you and they come up with solutions about how you can see your life, I guess, and just take a step back and an outside perspective and say, well, have you thought about it from this angle or have you tried doing this or have you...? And they just come up with really rational things. It's so nice to be so open and to hear somebody's perspective on your life and just say, is it actually really that bad when you sit there in that moment and you go, actually, it's noT, it's really refreshing and nice to hear somebody agree and be yourself to say things aren't that bad.
Dan:
Of course, it's very easy in that moment to be open and zen and not anxious. It's the CBT is about remembering those thought processes and how to deal with problems and, and how to be kind to yourself outside of the classroom. And that's what it's about. It's learning how to deal with things. I recommend CBT to anybody. I'm currently having it now, and I think it's a great tool that would help so many people. And it's something, again, that shouldn't be a negative connotation, especially if you have to pay for it. Im lucky enough to be part of the National Health Service, you and I get it for free. But if you have to pay for it, just ask yourself, would you pay for gym membership? And the answer if its yes, why wouldn't you pay for therapy that might make you feel good by exercising is going to keep you slim or healthy or build muscle or whatever, just the same way the therapy will keep your mind healthy. And I think that's you know, it's important to invest in yourself and look after yourself by no means. I'm not preaching. I'm not perfect. And I'm still, to this day learning things about myself and I need to take time off and all of this kind of stuff. But it's an experience that I've had that I would really recommend to any listener out there, that's thinking about maybe energizing their mind.
Emily:
And it's not often that we get the opportunity to sit with someone and have them listen to us nonjudgmental. And, you know, I have often heard people say that people today really listen to respond, rather than listening to understand. And to me, I think that's one of the major benefits of therapy. It's like going to someone that has no invested interest in your life. Like you don't have to maintain a relationship with this person like you would with your partner or your family. And you can just say anything unfiltered. It's such a freeing experience. And also, I have to thank you as well for that. I love that you said I could maybe be a CBT therapist. Look, honestly, I feel like maybe my life will go in that direction. I'm definitely developing interests in this area. Obviously, you're doing this podcast now, but that will say so. Thank you for that. Good luck.
Dan:
Good luck. And maybe maybe you can do virtual sessions and I can stay in London and have some CBT therapy from you in Australia!
Emily:
It'll be a while. So I'm also really interested. So you mentioned in the last episode that it was extremely helpful having the mental health support workers in your home because they were able to help educate your partner and your family in how to respond in that situation. And do you have any sort of insight on that in, I guess, any particular things that they advised your support people to do or to say or how to behave that you think maybe others in a similar situation might benefit from?
Dan:
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really key point. And in my development and how I got through that period of time was having this person come and speak to my family. I guess, is to break down barriers. As I keep saying, mental health is an illness and you need to know how to treat that illness and deal with that illness. It's no good saying to somebody who's got a family member with a broken leg,its oaky, they can still walk fine. They might just take a little bit longer. You wouldnt have somebody say, right, these are the crutches, get on with it. You need to help them be able to get in and out of the car in this way or whatever. You have to make adaptations for this person in your life. But I think the mental health is no different. One key thing for me that helped was the support work breaking down to my family, that it's not that I don't necessarily want to talk about problems, it's that I cant. And just knowing that they were there for me was often enough to keep me safe and keep me sound. Remember that I was very much a depressive state at this point. And there was a room in the house and in our living room with the sofa. And I had this caller. I just sat by myself.
Dan:
Nobody really used this room. But for me it was a space where I could watch TV and just be alone. And that was where I would be. And it wasn't necessarily because I wanted to be alone, but because I felt safest there and that I knew that I wouldn't have people going down to me and saying, How you and me, given the obligatory phone, even though I know im not, and they broke down barriers to say, you know what, if he doesn't want to come out, that maybe you should go into that room and sort of still be with him and don't say anything but just be there and know that if he wants to speak, he will speak and, one big thing that really helped, is them hearing that I can still listen, even though I might not want to speak when I was in that moment, I still wanted to be with people and listen. Knowing that they were there for me, if I was to ever need was enough. And, another thing that really helped was that, whilst I was too depressed and anxious to make decisions for myself, and it sounds silly now I'm saying it, but I'm sure a lot of people will understand if they've been in a similar situation, that I might not take the action to say I'm going to go get a coffee.
Dan:
If my partner was to say, right, come on, we're going out now, make the decision for me, I'll be more enticed to do it. Or if I was laying in bed and didn't want to get up, if she got my clothes out of the cupboard and gave them to me on the bed and said, right, come on, we're going, I would do it. And that helps as well, because it's not that I don't necessarily want to, it's that I feel like I can't. And it's very much debilitating, just like other illnesses in that you. Just because you know, you're not doing something, it doesn't mean that you want to if you are disabled, for example, you might need assistance in getting out of bed in the morning or having having to wash. Its's no that you don't want to. You can't. You would have something to help you. Right. And I think depression is very much the same way. So this support worker was key, I think really, really key in helping me recover because my family is so much open. And what's really interesting is just a couple of months ago, my partner actually said to one of her friends, you know, this is how I helped Daniel when he wasn't very well.
Dan:
Maybe this will work for your partner, who was actually feeling a little bit down and depressed himself. And I was so proud of my partner for saying this to her friend, say this is how you could help him. And she did it. She took the advice and said, come on, we're going out today. And it really helped them. This is the key of talking, right? The more people to talk about these things and normalize mental illnesses, the better. And it's one of the reasons that I was so privileged, proud and happy that you asked me to be on here today Emily because the more talked about things, the better. And it's an illness like no other. But so the support worker started this catalyst of events and passed it to my family, who is now passing it on to other people that can help. But just imagine if everybody already knew this. This is how you can help people who are having a down moment. And depression isn't forever. Everybody goes through periods of good days and bad days. But it's important to know that you don't forget these people when they are having a bad day. And take each day as it comes, but this this lady was fantastic, she really, really changed the way that I got better and helped my family.
Emily:
That makes me so happy to hear that it's sort of been a flow on effect as well, because I feel so strongly about that, about people talking about sort of what works. And I've just completed a mental health first aid course. So it's sort of a a baby version. But I will, you know, have a better idea of how to help people and can kind of share that information with those that are around me.
Dan:
Absolutely. It's so important. It's really, really good. If just one person talks about something you said, it's worth it as long as they talk about it to one person. And if everybody wants to speak to just one person about something, the world would be a much more pleasant place for people with mental illness.
Emily:
So you mentioned you know, I've talked a little bit about some of your support systems. So therapy and medication and the mental health support workers that were helping some of your friends and family, but that this is still something that you need to manage every day. So you said you need to manage anxiety every day. So how have you learned to do that? Is there anything sort of extra that you've picked up on over the last few years to help you manage?
Dan:
Absolutely. Some really simple things can make big changes. So some simple things that I would recommend to any of your listeners to embrace like I have is technology. Most people in 2020 have a smartphone. If you don't have access to a computer or maybe a tablet for work or something. And there's so many applications available that are designed to help people with their mental health. I use a variety of some good ones, and I can mention, are buddhify calm and headspace. Some are free, some are paid applications. A free app for sure is calm and they're based on the idea of mindfulness. Now, when I was first introduced by my first CBT therapist, I walked away thinking I was never going to use these apps, you know, and how times have changed. I'm not perfect. I don't always do it every day. When I do, I feel a hell of a lot better. And it just goes to show that, you know, I really need to factor in these things, even if it's just a recurrent five, 10 minutes every morning or know it makes a hell of a difference and. So my negative connotations was I don't want to do some sort of Buddhist chant, and that's what I thought mindfulness was! I thought it was the idea of getting in touch with your inner self and bells dinging around you! And that's what I really thought it was. And it was only when I embraced it, I realized I was so wrong. I guess I could describe mindfulness to anybody that doesn't know, especially guys out there that may have avoided it.
Dan:
It's taking a moment for yourself to listen to yourself. So these meditation apps, mindfulness apps are really good because they are designed for people that are not mental health trained, who are not psychologists and therapists, they are for the everyday Joe. And how they work is they give guided small sessions, five, 10 minutes, and they show you how to just relax so that these guided sessions whereby you can select the voice of your preference and they talk to you about how to spend five or ten minutes relaxing. And they often go in a similar motion, but they're designed for different things. So one might be how to get sleep. One might be how to feel revitalized in the morning. One might be you've had a stressful situation. You need five minutes to calm down and it's guided to make you think and listen to this voice and channel into your inner self. And again, I'm not talking about Buddhist chanting or anything like that. It's just sit there, be quiet, listen to the direct instructions and do as they say. So one might be we're going to start at the top of your body and work our way down. I want you to focus on your head, close your eyes. And what can you hear? What can you feel? Just focus like close your eyes and look at your head and really feel what you can feel. And I really recommend you try it before you judge it. Don't do what I did. I really thought it was great.
Emily:
I can relate to that. I cannot believe that I am now a meditator and I do yoga regularly and me from five years ago before my PhD would have been like, what are you doing? And and my partner is the same as well. He's very reluctant to try meditation and and mindfulness, but he's getting into it a bit more now with his work. So, yeah. Thank you for that explanation.
Dan:
I hope it helps. I people don't judge like it.
Emily:
Well, if I do, they'll hear what you thought and what you think now. So that's always helpful. So I'm interested to know, I guess as well. Have you, did you open up to anyone within academia during your undergrad or or even during your PhD now about some of these concerns that you've had? And I guess also why or why not?
Dan:
It's just a really good question. And people that know me now inside academia have asked me this before and the answer is no. When I was an undergraduate student and even at the beginning of my master's, I never told anybody about anything. I took time off when I was sick in the hospital after my suicide attempt, and I told no one. It was literally like I'd been on holiday for two weeks and come back. I felt supported enough to attend so quickly again because I still had help and support around me every day, and because my family were much more aware of things, I had much more communication with them in terms of daily check ins, even if they were a little bit annoying at first because they were anxious. They were like, what's he doing you, just to check in to see if i'm okay. But no, I didn't tell anybody. And the reason for that is there's a negative stigma of mental health in academia. That really is. And again, this is why it's so great that you are inviting people like myself, to talk about our experiences and try and normalize this. There is a negative connotation. It's like you can't cope. You're not good enough. You're not thick-skinned enough. You can't, you're not up to the pressure of dealing with fifty things at once. You can't juggle your emails, your lab work, your literature review and deal with stresses of life at the same time. You're almost seen as being the failure.
Dan:
Remember, at undergraduate, I was the perfectionist and I was striving to be something that was perfect and by admitting to myself or others around me that I wasn't perfect, it was a struggle. What would I go back in time and tell myself if I could open up and say, you're not OK, I now know that it's OK to not be OK and. For me, I'm comfortable saying that if I'm having a bad day. I'm having a bad day. There's also a wealth of help inside the university. It's just we're not we don't know about it. It's not so actively advertised. And again, this is a stigma that needs to change. Every university guaranteed, whether you know it or not, has a duty of care for its students at all levels and its staff! There is wellness teams, regardless of what they're called. That will be a wellness team of some description inside the university. And as part of that service, there are people on board to help you with struggles of university life, whether it be managing deadlines, stresses at home, because ultimately universities are invested in students because they want you to succeed. If you don't succeed and graduate, the university's failed you. And that's a statistic that they dont want. So I really wish that I would have embraced university help a lot sooner or and told them at all. But now they have opened up. I guess I see myself as an unofficial mental health ambassador for our department for sure.
Dan:
I'm definitely not scared of saying, sorry, guys, I'm having the afternoon off I dont feel great. And I even have out of hours notifications for my emails saying I'm not having a great day due to stress and anxiety and im having the afternoon off. And I've had some people say before and they said, you know, that's really not a good thing. I remember one guy and it was white professor. He said, you know, that's not a good thing to do Daniel. It's really damaging to your reputation. I said, well, I'm happy to have the reputation that I'm okay to not be OK. And if my students that I'm teaching right now see that and know that it's OK, I'm happy with that, because let's face it, the academics of today are not going to be academics today forever. They will retire at some point. And the upcoming students,PhD students, undergrads, we are the next generation. And I think it's our duty of care to change things and model it for the way that we want. And the more people to think like this and striving for change, the better. I know in my university I'm not alone in challenging current regulations and opinions. Sometimes I'm seen as being the bad guy and standing up and rebelling. But ultimately, if it's going to make my life more comfortable and even if it makes one other persons life more comfortable, then I think it's a worthwhile cause. Especially in meetings when the meeting is scheduled through lunchtime, for example. Its lunch time for a reason, its to take lunch and look after yourself and have a break.
Dan:
Why are you scheduling the meeting through lunch time? I decline straight away, even if I'm the only person somebody's schedule meeting for. I just I can't do it because that's my time. I really wish that I was better at cancelling later in the day meetings like in the evening, because there's no set going home time. I find it more difficult to justify. Thats something I'm working on with making stricter deadlines for myself. And funnily enough, it was a conversation I had this week with my partner as well about actually scheduling in time in my calendar, blocking out and saying, you know what, this is done. Your time and whatever I do in that time is my business. Whenever I want to sit on the Xbox or whatever, it would make me feel better right in that document or a couple of pages annotating in that journal article that I've been trying to do a week. If it makes me feel better, I want to do it in that in that period of time, I blocked out that. I'll do it as long as it's something I want to do and it will make me feel good that I'm willing to do it. So, yeah, that's something I spoke about this week, really looking forward and doing.
Emily:
I love that. For the listeners, I was clapping in the background. Daniel was describing the email notification that he puts on. That's very brave. And I actually I'm going to think about that. I find that very inspirational. I don't think I'm quite at that point yet, but I love hearing that people are starting to do that. So thank you for that!
Dan:
The only way to challenge that is if you've already said it's OK to take a day off, if you've had a bad day thinking about your experiences in the lab, you've had a bad day and want the next day off, If you didn't reply to the email for a day, would anybody say anything? Probably not. Right? But by telling people im not OK today, there's no difference. Right? If you're not going to reply to the email anyway, but not have the out of hours, you may aswell tell them people as they might actually embrace it and say what's wrong Emily? And you go, well, you know, an absolute rubbish day and get people talking about it together. We can do it.
Emily:
How to think about it? Yeah, definitely. And I also love you and declining lunchtime meetings immediately. That's also a really great thing. You've got some very good boundaries, which I think is fantastic. And I, I love that you mentioned scheduling some Daniel time because I've just started doing that as well. Obviously scheduling Emily time, but I go swim laps, OK, I get my nails done or, you know, just things because I otherwise I just push them out and I don't actually end up resting or relaxing or recouping and then I just burn out. I'm not useful to anyone, so, yes, some really fantastic words of advice there, I think, from your experience. So I guess I know you mentioned that universities do have this duty of care and a lot of them do have support systems available, even if they're not particularly well advertised. But do you think there is anything that could have been done better to support you or could be done now? Better to support you in your day, or do you feel like the wellness support is sufficient?
Dan:
I think a lot more can be done, especially at PhD level. The well-known support that's available was very much aimed at undergraduate and master's students. And I guess that is a fault of the university because undergraduates make up the bulk of the income. That's the university's bread and butter. Let's say that the undergraduate intake will make up the student numbers for most of the university. And because of that, they channel their energies for a lot of things to focus and cater for the needs of undergraduate students. Now, if you're a PhD student and you're listening to this, you will understand that PhD research and undergraduate research is is very, very different. And we have different needs. We don't have exams at PhD level. We have certain deadlines to meet. We have conferences to attend. We have different schedules that we have to focus on, different working hours. And because of that, the wellness team is not so well suited. Let's say they have different ideas of how to support you. It might be giving you extra time in exams or even extensions to your deadlines or this kind of stuff, or liaising with your module leaders of your courses to say, you know what, this guy needs some extra help. He's going to put a Dictaphone next to you so you can go back and listen to lectures elsewhere. And at the time, all of this kind of stuff, which is great, but at PhD students don't often have these kind of needs.
Dan:
We don't have exams. We can't get an extension on our Viva, one week extension provided is not going to help if you're having a bad day. One thing I would really like to see in universities and I would love to find out from the listeners Emily, if other universities have more provisions for actually supporting supervisors and supervisory teams on how to support these students. A lot of people are great researchers, but they might not necessarily know how to support the team. Is there managerial support. How do you deal with somebody if they have a bad day or allof this kind of stuff? And I think that would be almost like you said earlier, going on a mental health first aid course. Maybe that would be really great for supervisors, make it sort of mandatory training or something, because that is often, I know it is in my university, that's who I have most of my direct contact with, my supervisors and if they're not up for helping me, I'm not saying they aren't, if they're listening, they are, but, you know, everybody has a different experience and that's often a main personal contact. So I would love to see sort of a provision in place for more support for the supervisor to support the student. I would love to see more of that really.
Emily:
Yeah, I definitely agree. I'm also wary, though, that I guess supervisors are also in a fairly broken system and it's difficult to put that extra pressure on them. A lot of them want to help, but, you know, they're they're under their own mental struggle and their own responsibility. So I almost feel like there needs to be a dedicated lab manager for every different research group that is that person.
Dan:
Yeah, that's such a good point, is that we often I just did just them when I was talking. And you forget that everybody is under this mental strain in academia. It's not just PhD students. And yeah, I think it should be okay to be able to check in on supervisors as well. I think I've got a really good relationship with my supervisor, in that I can ask, is everything okay? At the end or the beginning of a meeting, especially during this pandemic period where we're not all in the lab at the same time, I say, how's things at home? You doing okay? I think more people should be like that. And there shouldn't be a hierarchical system within the universities where you only ask the question down, not going the other way. We should be looking out for each other because we're all striving for the same things ultimately. And that is, you know, academic success and research.
Emily:
Yeah, I agree. I have tried to start doing that. But I think that's resistance from the upper end at responding genuinely to those questions as well. But hopefully that'll shift them only the more we work on it. So I guess one main last question. So do you think any of these experiences that you've had have shifted the direction of your life at all? I guess it's it's very much a therapist question, because when you're in the midst of everything, you know, they're always trying to get you to see the positives that, that might have on your life and the positives that might come out of it. Do you have anything like that for yourself?
Dan:
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's really important to live in the moment. Of course, it's important to have a perspective of what's happening in your life and where you think your life is going. I think the experiences that I've had today have really impacted my life, and I think it's impactful in a positive way. It's definitely shaped me into being a different person. Not different in a sense that I got rid of the old Daniel. Not a new and reformed Daniel, but it's made me see things differently. I'm much more appreciative of things that I would have otherwise took for granted. It's made me stronger and made me more able to embrace problems. I think I'm still a very anxious person. I still take medication and have therapy, but it's made me see things in a different light. So problems that I would otherwise have had and struggled partly with because of having CBT and experiencing things before, I'm now able to overcome them. And I guess I'm much more appreciative of my support network of family and friends. I'm much more open to talk, which is shaping a much more positive experience for me in my life. I certainly wouldn't have been talking to you today if I hadn't have had the experiences that I've had before, and that's because I would still be in the presumably the depressive and anxious state that I was in and that I can't talk to anybody. And I like to use the opportunity to talk about my experiences, not because I want to talk about myself all day, but I want to make it OK to talk about things and understand that we can all feel a certain way or be going through a certain problem.
Dan:
And you don't have to be a therapist to respond to somebody talking and you just have to be a listener. And I think that listening goes a long way. You know, it's really important to to engage with people if they want to speak. You might not have all the answers, but just somebody venting or getting something off their chest is often enough for them to go, I feel better for that! That that was really inside me. That was sort of eating me up. So these experiences, yes, they've been negative and I wouldn't want anybody to go through some of the experiences that I went through in the period before I started my last year of undergrad. I used the opportunities like today to tell people that if you are feeling a certain way,then please just take that first step and talk to somebody. Doesn't have to be somebody, you know, it could be somebody anonymous. There's lots of helplines out there. So in the UK you have Samaritans. There's always people you can talk to. And just talking is enough. You don't have to tell everything. You can tell the story that you want to tell. But talking really really does help. And these experiences have shaped me for the positive Emily, in a nutshell, they really have.
Emily:
That's great. And yeah, we will add some support resources in our outroar as well. There's also some on the Voices of Academia website at www.VoicesofAcademia.com So, if our listeners would like to get in touch with you all and more about you, Daniel, where can they find you.
Dan:
So I have a Twitter account that I'm very active on so you can find me @mrdanielranson. I also have a personal website where I have contact details on there. You can get in touch with me. It is www.danielranson.co.uk I'm also fortunate enough to be part of a podcast, it is called PhD:Addicted to Research. And this is a podcast that's in place with me and five other Society for the Study of Addiction research Fellows. And we talk about the journey of a PhD and it would be particularly useful for anybody thinking about doing a PhD or who are doing a PhD in the early, mid and late stages. And we talk about things that you might not have come across before. For example, attending a conference, having your first annual monitoring review, submitting the thesis, have your viva, what to do if you're having problems with your supervisory team, what to do if your, you know, just generally want some support. And what we think a PhD is like and what a PhD is like is often very, very different things. I'm sure Emily will agree, are often different things. So we're just trying to break down the barriers of what things are and how to cope with them. It's a very informal chat, But I'm also available there on PhD:Addicted to research
Emily:
And I'm super keen to listen to that one as well. So that's available on iTunes, Spotify and a number of other major distributing platforms. So that pretty much wraps up today's episode of Voices of Academia. I'm sure you'll agree that we've learned a lot from Daniel today, a lot about boundaries and about the importance of mental health support workers and education of the support people that you have around you, sort of knowing how to communicate with you in ways that are helpful for you. Also, the benefits of CBT and medication and some of those mindfulness apps that were also put into our show notes.
Emily:
Next episode, we'll hear a story that includes the importance of choosing carefully who you open up to. I also have an announcement, I promise I won't continue to recruit podcast guests to our team, but in addition to Sereta from our earlier episodes, Daniel has now joined the team. He'll be volunteering to help us continue to provide full transcripts of every podcast episode. A massive thank you to Dan. Before you go, we have some support resources and information for how you can share your own story if this episode brought anything up for you. There are mental health resources and emergency numbers available for various countries at www.checkpointorg.com/global. For information found in this episode, refer to the episode description or visit the podcast section of our website. www.voicesofacademia.com. There you can also access the full transcript of this episode made available by our lovely voices of academia team member Daniel Ranson. This podcast was written, hosted and produced by me, Emily, with support from some very special people in my life.
Emily:
You can find me on Twitter at EKing_Sci but I'm part of the larger voices of academia team. We have a website, a Twitter account, @academicvoices and also share stories in blog form with the option of them being anonymous. If you like this podcast and want to hear more stories, please leave a review. Subscribe, tell me what you think on Twitter and tell your friends. The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple podcasts and most other major listening platforms. You can also follow the Voices of Academia blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Just head to our Web site www.voicesofacademia.com to sign up. If you have a mental health awareness story to share, we absolutely want to hear from you. Whether you're a team leader, research assistant, postdoc, student, ex academic or any other type of researcher. Follow Academic Voices on Twitter. Visit the link in the episode description or visit our website www.voicesofacademia.com for details on how to share your story. It's time someone gave you a voice.
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