Hi I am getting increasingly worried about the mental health of phd students. After finding out an acquaintance of mine from another university committed suicide recently, I really feel something needs to change. I have recently finished my phd successfully which I'm really pleased about but my journey through my PhD was really hard and I suffered with anxiety through a good proportion of it. So many people I know seem to have similar problems. What I would like to know is why mental health problems are so widespread in PhD students and what can we do as a community to stop this? I believe that PhDs shouldn't be easy but then they also shouldn't make us Un well either! Would be really interested about what others think about this.

Thanks for your replies - yes I have said in my discussions what needs to be done to make the experiments better if done in the future. it still sucks though - I wanted to feel a bit more confident going into the viva.

Wanted to add more details but it keeps crashing every time I try to post. Just wanted to say, supervisors have both read and seemed happy with my results chapters but can I trust them?

Any advice? Have just submitted thesis and I'm worried about how some of my experiments were conducted, particularly in relation to using proper controls. Not sure what t do about it? Please help.

I am in my third year of my PhD and I have had enough of my supervisor. She is possibly one of the most unprofessional and horrible people I have every met. She treats me like her personal assistant/ slave. She makes me run errands for her whch have nothing to do with my PhD or the lab for that matter. If I am unable to help her I get rude comments from her nd she makes me feel very guilty even if I have very good reasons not to be able to help. I'm fed up of being treated like this and need help to take this further. I'm scared of making an official complaint because I am sure she will ruin me and stop me from completing my PhD. But what else can I do?