Between You and Me: How I Am Healing from Stress

Wellbeing is always personal, here's what's working for me

After appearing beneath every essay for four years, BETWEEN YOU AND ME is now a special offering for paid subscribers. It is full of behind-the-scenes updates and fun recommendations like I’d share over coffee with a friend. Thank you so much for being here!

Dear Friends,

This year, I have been honest about living with, and addressing, chronic and acute stress. Today, I want to talk about what that looks like and how I am benefitting! Recent studies illustrating widespread mental health problems among graduate students are easy to find, and the statistics are alarming. Personally, I don’t need the data—I see graduate students struggling from acute stress every single day! People who have limited support systems and more caregiving or money-making responsibilities outside school inevitably suffer more.

Alongside the acute stress of my program (a program I also love, to be fair), I also live with chronic family-related stress, and my husband has a very full, on-the-road career. After four semesters of intense study and production, it became clear that this complex equation was affecting my health, and I had two more semesters to go. Health and stress management look different for everyone, and require thoughtful personalization. Here is what is working for me!