Mental health challenges for early career physicists

In the past few years, more studies about poor mental health in academia have been conducted and found that PhD students are almost 3 times as likely to develop mental health problems than then general population. While studies have not been conducted yet on postdoctoral researchers, anecdotal evidence has shown similar concern about mental health on blogs such as Chronically Academic, and others. Topics often linked with poor mental health are work-life balance, job demands, long work hours, supervisor’s leadership, and financial concerns. Many of these these stressors are often exacerbated for those with an underrepresented identity with the addition of factors such as stereotype threat, imposter syndrome, or microaggressions. I will discuss the challenges that lead to poor mental health for early career physicists as well as some possible solutions that can be implemented by individuals and the community.