How I approach my own mental health is not the only way and with everything difficult, it’s a journey. So please don’t view anything you differently to me as wrong!

But what do I actually do to take care of my #mentalhealth? (1/8)
1) Understand that there will be very good and very bad days. These may come at random times and without reason. It’s about riding the rollercoaster
2) Take breaks! (Yes - I don’t listen to my own advice)
3) Found my people. A group either online or offline that I can talk to or have shared experiences. Good examples of online communities that are a great comfort for me are @openacademics and @PhD_Balance
@OpenAcademics @PhD_Balance 4) Find something away from academia to invest time and effort it. For the majority of my PhD, I was in a choir and we even went to New York to perform! Poster outside of Carnegie Hall for a sold out musical perfo
5) Try not to measure myself only by academic achievements (this links back to number 4)
And last but by no means least - 6) Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I learned this one too late and a lot of my PhD would have been a lot easier if I had sought out the support I needed before it got so bad.
What approaches do you use to help maintain and look after your own #mentalhealth? (8/8)

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More from @realscientists

20 Aug
As wonderfully described by @CCriadoPerez in her book ‘Invisible Women’, women are living in a world designed for men. Now in an era of increased data science, that means that there is a data bias towards men (1/5)
This wonderful book covers everything medical data (including ‘standard’ symptoms of heart attack) is based on men, that women are 47% more likely to be seriously injured in a car accident and asks ‘can snow clearing can be sexist?’ (2/5)
Current research shows that female uptake for clinical trials is still low (bmj.com/content/371/bm…) and even in trials where women are recruited, lots don’t provide gender disaggregated data. (3/5)
Read 5 tweets
19 Aug
A recent survey of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) in the UK found that only 14% of PGRs saying that they have low anxiety. This is nearly 3 times lower than in the general population (41%). Does this seem right to you?
Source: advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views… (1/3)
What this study shows in that anxiety (and likely other experiences of poor mental health) are prevalent in the research community - at least at PhD level.

So why don’t we talk about it more? We all have mental health after all (2/3)
Personally, I think a lot of it comes down to the stigma surrounding mental health. And hopefully today, by being open and honest about my own experiences with navigating the world of being healthy whilst studying, I can show it’s normal (3/3)
Read 4 tweets
18 Aug
My journey into scientific engagement started with @cgebm_aberdeen during my masters in 2017 at @aberdeenuni May Festival - which celebrates culture and education around the city and university campus (1/4) Large white marquee with a ...
As part of this event, the CGEBM hosted ‘Gene’s unzipped’ - where we taught primary school students from around Aberdeenshire what DNA is, why it’s so awesome. We also helped the students perform my favourite basic science experiment - extracting DNA from strawberries (2/4) Two children in lab coats p...A room full of children in ...Children in lab coats from ...
With some fruit, washing up liquid and alcohol, you get a suspension of DNA in a solution and it’s a bit gooey and fun to play with too! For more information on how to do this with young budding scientists - head here genome.gov/Pages/Educatio… (3/4)
Read 4 tweets
7 May
Here's podcast episode to check out! The @EndocrinePod featuring the fantastic, @walkerdm79 (with a new lab at OHSU @walkerlabohsu) and hosted by @superchiasmatic, a neuroscientist and #SciComm-er with a super handle🦸‍♀️
Thread on her recent publication in Biological Psychiatry
Read 4 tweets
7 May
.@LastWeekTonight did a great piece on bias in medicine in 2019 that features an excerpt of an interview with Larry Cahill from a 60 Minutes story ("Sex Matters" in 2014).
Larry Cahill wrote a great response to Gina Rippon's "The Gendered Brain" -- a tweet from the amazing @docbecca explains...
She also lists some more researchers studying sex differences #SABVscientists
Read 5 tweets
6 May
At the start of lockdown last year, I downloaded #TikTok and I’ve been hooked ever since! My own videos are a mix of “life in the lab”, some singing & music, and a generous helping of silliness 😁
vm.tiktok.com/ZMeqjhy3c/
I’ve really enjoyed being part of the science community there over the past year — here are a few of the amazing scientist creators on TikTok ⤵️
big_science_energy! She also streams on Twitch
vm.tiktok.com/ZMeqjRwok/
Read 16 tweets

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