The Gospel, Mental Health & Grad School

“Ph.D. candidates suffer from anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation at astonishingly high rates,” the Atlantic reports. According to one study cited by Inside Higher Ed, “graduate students are more than six times as likely to experience depression and anxiety as compared to the general population”. As  Derek Lowe puts it “anxiety and depression are very close to inevitable in graduate study.”

Through your partnership we convened our 2nd Annual Mental Health in Grad School event to attempt to address this tragic situation and ask what healing resources the gospel might have to offer. Our panel included Northwestern Professor Keith Tyo (Chemical Engineering, pictured above on the left) to offer a faculty member’s perspective, Mimoza Paloj (from Northwestern’s Family Institute, pictured above in the center), and Rev. Charles Miyamoto (Director of the Counseling Center at First Presbyterian Church, pictured above on the right). Here’s a sampling of the questions your partnership helped address:

What practices can I do at my desk to improve my mental health?

How can I monitor my mental health?

How can we improve mental health in our departments?

How do I support friends with mental health while making sure to maintain my own health?

Students were encouraged to see how the gospel predicts the brokenness in and around us and says that it is worse than we currently, or even dare, imagine. Moreover, that brokenness can be so entrenched that we need professional help in addressing it and we shouldn’t assume we can tackle it ourselves if that hasn’t been working out. At the same time, Jesus’ sacrifice shows that we are more loved than we dare hope, so we can share our brokenness with others. His love is also so amazing that it can address many of our anxieties and feelings of unworthiness.

Pray for our students as they apply the gospel to their lives and those around them in need of mental healing.