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Academics are suffering in silence from mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders, exclusive findings from the Guardian's mental health survey of 2,500 academics has shown.
Well over half (61%) of the respondents say that none of their colleagues are aware of their mental health problems, with only a slight difference in the figures for men and women.
An even higher proportion (66%) say they have not spoken to someone in a senior position, such as a line manager or research supervisor, about their mental health problems.
While the majority of academics say they have sought professional help for their problem, a third have not done so. The numbers reveal a marked difference between men and women: only 59% of men have sought professional help, compared with 68% of women.
The most commonly reported conditions are anxiety (83%), depression (75%) and panic attacks (42%), though a significant minority (15%) also report suffering from eating disorders, and 11% have self-harmed.
Support is emotional rather than practical
Senior colleagues are much more likely to offer general emotional support than practical support, the survey found.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of academics who have spoken to a senior colleague or supervisor say they were offered either emotional or practical support. In the majority of cases (76%), this has been "general emotional support", but nearly a third say they have been given time off, while a quarter were offered a reduction in hours.
One in five respondents were offered other kinds of support from a senior colleague. Some say their colleague suggested counselling services or therapy, while others were offered changes to working conditions such as greater flexibility or help with prioritising work.
The quality of support varies. "Superb and patient academic supervision," writes one. "Get treatment or lose your job," is how another summarised the response of their colleague.
Lib Taylor, professor of theatre and performance at Reading University, says that PhD supervisors and senior departmental members are encouraged to be sympathetic and advise students or colleagues to seek help from a university counsellor if they are having problems.
"This might be someone who could help them with an aspect of their work that is worrying them or someone who could help them manage stress," she says.
But she adds: "This kind of support isn't as plentiful or accessible as it used to be in the current climate where everything is cut to the limit."
Not everyone suffering from mental health problems has a positive response when they broach the subject. One PhD student at Queen's University, Belfast, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that when she was doing her master's degree, she began to struggle.
"I was extremely distressed at one stage, I was just sitting on the ground crying, I just felt as if I couldn't cope and I wasn't getting the help."
She went to her supervisor: "I said I was having problems, that mentally I was just feeling under pressure and couldn't cope.
"Her first reaction was to give me an extension, and she actually talked about my taking a break from my studies for a while, putting it off till next year. Apart from that she was really no support at all." A period of university counselling helped her to identify coping strategies so that she could complete her dissertation.
Who do academics turn to for help?
Of those academics who sought professional support, 67% saw a GP or primary care provider, while half used the university counselling service and 44% saw a private therapist.
The most common treatment is medication, prescribed to more than three-quarters of those who sought help from their GP, though two-thirds were prescribed a course of counselling. One says their GP recommended "sleep and a holiday".
Some respondents sought help outside the usual channels, including seeing a psychiatrist, but a number opted for therapies such as yoga, martial arts or drama therapy. Several mention mindfulness, which one says "helped me hugely".
Tina Abbott, staff counselling manager at Cardiff University, says the service has seen a steady increase in referrals over the past three years. This year has already already seen a 16% increase over this time last year (though the figures include support staff, not just academic staff). The top three problems the service sees are anxiety or stress, depression, and self-esteem problems, she says.
She confirms that some staff find it difficult to talk about mental health problems: "With the current climate in higher education, rapid change and budgetary issues, there is more pressure felt by staff to be seen to be OK and coping in case they are seen as not performing. We do have an ongoing job to keep talking about mental health issues."
"It never dawned on me to seek help"
One academic who didn't seek help is a former research fellow in physics at an Irish university, who wishes to remain anonymous. His postdoctoral funding was stopped before the project he was working on was complete, and he ended up working for free while feeling increasingly demotivated.
"I never sought any help, never complained about anything and also believed that sheer hard work and discipline would win over in the end. This attitude had always served me in the past," he says. "Looking back I was depressed, angry and confused but hid it well behind a wall of seriousness. It never even dawned on me to seek help or even to see my situation as something requiring external help."
He tried to "soldier on", he adds: "If you had said to me then, 'You are depressed and need help,' I would have simply dismissed your comments and processed my situation as partially my fault and partially the system's."
Senior academics, he believes, were simply too embarrassed to address the problems he was experiencing, or to admit that his situation was exploitative. Three years ago, he left academia, and has no plans to return.
View the findings in full of the Guardian's mental health survey.
Can you relate to these findings? Share your story in the comments below.
If you have been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this piece, contact Samaritans or Nightline.
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