While pursuing an advanced degree is exciting, it can be daunting. Balancing grad school academic demands, career responsibilities, and personal life can be overwhelming and result in burnout, anxiety, and stress. Loneliness among students, financial stress, and heavy workload are other reasons for mental health issues like depression in grad school.

Statistics suggest that graduate students are more than six times as likely to suffer from depression than the general population. However, implementing the right coping strategies can help ensure success. Discussed below is how to handle grad school when you have depression.

Embrace online learning

Your educational setting can significantly impact your health and academic success. Opting for certified online programs, such as accelerated BSN programs online, can increase the chances of success for those going through grad school when they have depression. Online learning makes a positive difference in various ways, including:

• Personalized learning environment: As a grad student pursuing an online degree program, you can tailor your schedule and learning environment to match your personal needs, significantly reducing stress and anxiety
• Controlled social interactions: Online learning allows you to engage and interact with your peers in a more controlled way, which can be more inclusive and less overwhelming
• Reduced social pressure: Opting for online degree programs reduces the severity of social pressures common in traditional schooling, including bullying, which can be significantly beneficial for grad school students with depression

Additionally, online learning offers more flexibility, which is vital for managing anxiety and stress. This allows you to establish a learning routine that accommodates your energy levels all through the day, ensuring you’re studying when most productive.

Adopt effective time management strategies

Time management is crucial for maintaining your mental well-being when in graduate school. Being able to allocate your time effectively reduces stress while ensuring you aren’t overwhelmed. Effective time management you can leverage to manage grad school stress and anxiety include the following:

• Use a calendar or planner: It can be a digital or physical device that enables you to organize your schedule, set reminders, and plan your activities. You can use a calendar or planner to map out your semester, monthly, weekly, and daily goals, plus your deadlines, events, and commitments
• Adapt the Pomodoro technique: It’s a popular strategy for boosting focus, efficiency, and productivity. The Pomodoro technique includes breaking down your tasks into 25-minute intervals, known as Pomodoros, succeeded by five-minute breaks. Upon completing four Pomodoros, you can go on a longer 15 to 30-minute break. This reduces distractions while maximizing concentration, helping you beat procrastination, minimize stress, and manage your energy levels.

Practice mindfulness

Grad school can be a hurricane of research, deadlines, and never-ending activities. Although feeling overwhelmed is easy, incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine can provide mental clarity and relief. Breathing exercises and meditation are powerful ways to regulate emotions and minimize stress. Some of the techniques you can incorporate into your daily routine include:

• Mindfulness meditation: Spending some time daily sitting quietly and concentrating on your breathing or chanting mantras can reduce stress and enhance mood
• Deep breathing exercises: They activate the relaxation response responsible for calming the nervous system down and sending a signal to the brain to relax, reducing stress.

Take breaks

Considering how demanding grad school can be, taking purposeful study breaks from studies to refresh your body and brain boosts energy levels, ability to focus, and productivity. Instead of browsing social media, find tasks that give your brain a break and let you move your body, breathe, and be creative. During your study breaks, you can:

• Meditate
• Take a walk
• Stretch
• Prepare a healthy meal
• Talk to a friend
• Take a nap

Seek professional assistance

Grad school can be hard on your mental well-being. Balancing academics, clinical training, and research can be overwhelming and stressful. Seeking counseling services can make it easier to handle grad school when you have depression. A counselor can help develop a strategy that can enable you to work through your problems, whether personal or academic, making it easier to manage depression. Counselors provide a safe, confidential zone where you can express yourself without the fear of being judged.

Prioritize self-care

Self-care is an effective way to relieve the signs of depression when in grad school. Taking time to do what you love and enjoy can help you relax. You can practice self-care by:

• Eating healthy, nutritious meals
• Getting enough sleep
• Taking some time off your busy study schedule daily
• Creating time for your hobbies
• Taking time to keep up with family and friends

Start exercising

Exercising doesn’t just benefit your physical health alone, it’s excellent for your mental health, especially when dealing with depression. Sticking to a regular workout routine significantly reduces depression and anxiety by releasing feel-good hormones. It also enhances and boosts cognitive function.

Creating a workout routine that aligns with your schedule and sticking to it can help ensure consistency. It could be a lunch break walk, a morning jog, or a night yoga session. Choose exercises you enjoy to boost your chances of staying consistent. Maintaining a consistent workout routine helps not only alleviates depression but also enhances sleep quality.

Limit distractions

Getting distracted when studying is common and often results in procrastination and reduced productivity. This leads to accumulated workloads, which can be overwhelming and stressful. Eliminating or limiting distractions is key to your productivity and effective time management.

To get started with removing distractions, determine what distracts you most and find ways to avoid it. For instance, if you’re unnecessarily wasting too much time on social media, you can switch off your phone or keep it out of sight. This will make it easier for you to concentrate and complete more work.

Join a peer support group

Talking to someone undergoing similar issues while in grad school can be comforting. Joining a support group lets you share your experiences and engage with others in a situation like yours. These student-led groups usually offer a sense of mutual support and community. Joining a peer support group in grad school offers several advantages, including:

• Enabling you to gain different outlooks on handling school when depressed
• Providing a safe space where you can express yourself and feel understood
• Helping you build friendships, allowing you to feel less isolated

While going through graduate school when depressed is challenging, implementing the right strategies can be helpful. Embracing online learning, implementing effective time management techniques, practicing mindfulness, and more can help you fight depression and ensure grad school success.