Stress management for PhDs: boost your resilience!

“During a PhD, stress is somehow considered to be ‘part of the deal’. For many, a PhD is the first job after graduation. However, it is not just a ‘regular’ job. You are often a sort of jack-of-all trades: you are a researcher, a teacher, a trainer, a project manager, a quality controller. You have to keep all the balls in the air to reach the finish line. This can sometimes be very stressful. In addition, it can also affect your well-being. Since a PhD journey takes time, patience and sustained effort (you can compare it with a marathon rather than a sprint), it is essential to become resilient and to deal with stress in a healthy way.” – PhD candidates Svenja Cremer and Teuni Rooijackers.
 

What is stress?
Stress is a physiological, mental and/or behavioral reaction to a stressor. A stress response is often a healthy reaction in order to flight from or fight against an unhealthy, dangerous or unpleasant situation.

What is burnout?
Burnout is a sign of long-lasting exhaustion of the body and the mind, and a reaction to chronic (work) stressors one has been exposed to for years. It is characterized by emotional exhaustion, a feeling of severe fatigue and ‘emptiness’. Secondly, it is characterized by depersonalization: a cynical attitude towards others. Further, one has low control over emotions: sudden eruptions of sadness or anger are not unusual. Next, one experiences a lack of concentration and making mistakes because of that. Burnout is accompanied by high levels of stress symptoms (www.burnoutassessmenttool.be, which contains the Burnout Assessment Tool in more than 20 languages, also in English).

“In July of this year, Angelique de Rijk provided a workshop on burn-out prevention for the PhD’s and juniors of the department of Health Services Research. Angelique shared important signals of stress and tips for stress reduction; this was very valuable. Becoming aware of what causes stress and what gives relaxation and rest in your day-to-day work may help in creating more autonomy and control. This in turn can boost your resilience and improve your well-being.” -  PhD candidates Svenja Cremer and Teuni Rooijackers.

Resilience
Research shows that preventing the consequences of long-lasting stressors, and increasing work pleasure and productivity, requires becoming more resilient:

1. Work is Challenging and not exhausting 
2. You get enough Feedback to learn about one’s competences and to feel competent
3. Feeling Part of a team / group at work and in your private life
4. Healthy habits to Recover (breaks and sleep) and Recharge (activities that give you energy)

First: getting to know yourself
Managing your stress levels starts with monitoring and getting to know yourself better:

• Which symptoms of stress do I have (sometimes)? Are they becoming chronic symptoms or even symptoms of burnout? (www.burnoutassessmenttool.be or online in Dutch: https://www.nieuwsblad.be/burn-out/test)
• What are my typical causes of chronic stress? E.g.: Too much to do in too little time, no influence on study and work content, work-life-study imbalance, lack of support / feeling that you have to do everything alone, lack of acknowledgement for your efforts, negative Life events, negative thoughts about the work demands, not able to reduce demands (coping), not able to recover from the effects of stressors
• What should be first to improve? Challenge, Feedback, being Part of, Recovery or my Recharging?

How to improve?
First, if your stress levels are too high and you are at risk for burnout, you should make an appointment for a free of charge working condition consultation with our Maastricht University occupational physician (you can find the contact details here). This professional has a lot of expertise on burnout and will treat all information you give confidentially. Do not hesitate, do it!

At work, you can consider making your work more interesting and challenging and taking away what exhausts you. Often, this means creating more autonomy and control, and decreasing demands, but planning might also help.

Next you can consider asking for more detailed, (positive) feedback. Do not shy away for asking for feedback: as PhD-student you have to learn and have to develop yourself. If you explain that you want to learn, your supervisors and colleagues will be inspired to answer your request (and giving them a compliment now and then will smoothen work relationships as well).

Many PhDs wonder: how should I ask for feedback? Just do it: “Can you give me some feedback on … (e.g. how I contacted the organizations that participate in my research)?” If your supervisor dares to forget the feedback rules and starts with criticism, listen first, and ask friendly and with diplomacy for positive feedback as well. Be aware that their role does not equal their personality! Their role is to work hard on many different tasks and if they react curt, this has not much to do with you. Put evaluation/feedback on the agenda for the supervision meeting. Be persistent, if your supervisors move this agenda issue, address it in the next meeting. Make it into a routine to evaluate a few (3-4) times a year. If you make it more a natural routine and express verballing and non-verbally that you want to learn, your supervisors and colleagues will be inspired to answer your request. Moreovergiving them a compliment now and then will smoothen work relationships as well. Finally, you might ask your supervisor about his or her experiences during his or her PhD – just show that you are all listening. – Angelique de Rijk, professor in Work and Health at the department of Social Medicine and also a supervisor who sometimes juggles with time and tasks.

Further, consider investing in collaboration and feeling a part of a group by taking your share and offering practical help and a listening ear to others, particularly the ones you like.

Finally, plan your rest (breaks) and working times ahead and stick to them, particularly when working from home. Also: plan healthy and simple activities to recharge. Take that daily walk and make it fun! Take time to cook for yourself and enjoy healthy cooking.

Regarding your private life, again consider eliminating tasks that cost energy and pay more attention to those things that give energy. Plan housekeeping, cooking etc. in a routine basis so it will not cost more energy than necessary. Take time to talk to others about what is important for you in life, ask for suggestions and feedback. Invest in your family and friends by offering your company and help to others and make sure that you become part of a social group. Skip the meetings with persons that do not feel as friends. Pay attention to your sleeping habits and taking breaks. Plan recharging activities and do not skip these.

“As PhD candidates, we acknowledge that experiencing stress should be taken seriously, even if it seems to be nothing or even “normal”. We should aim to listen carefully to ourselves to figure out how we are feeling and whether we are experiencing any kind of stress. If this is the case, it is crucial to share this with colleagues, your daily supervisor or the supervisory team. Express yourself and communicate with your team as open as possible! This is okay, and can give you the necessary confidence boost or help you refocus. Of course, we know that communicating with supervisors can be tricky at times. Within the department of Health Services Research, a team-dynamics collaborative has been set up to work on a general learning culture and a supportive work environment within HSR. With this, we hope to encourage both PhDs as well as senior staff who supervise PhDs to reflect on their ways of working and on the collaboration within PhD project teams. You can find more information on the aims and ideas of the collaborative here.” - PhD candidates Svenja Cremer and Teuni Rooijackers.