Table 4 Reasons why Ph.D. students revealed their depression to other graduate students

No judgement—personal relationship

Student reports that they did not think they would be judged for revealing because they had developed a close personal relationship with a fellow graduate student.

49%

Student 3: “[The other graduate students and I] are just a supportive group. (…) From the beginning, my advisor set an environment where she wants it to be a family. Family can mean different things for different people, but at least in our family unit, we try to be there for each other.”

Student 23: “[The other graduates and I] are a family in my lab. We have some kind of relationship that's in-between a sibling and coworker. And I socialize with them a lot on the weekends and on weeknights, and we eat lunch together every day, and we talk all the time.”

No judgement—other person struggles with mental health

Student reports that they did not think they would be judged for revealing because the other graduate student also struggles with mental health.

43%

Student 5: “I think [another graduate student] mentioned that he was vaguely struggling [with depression] and I was like, ‘No way. Me too.’ So, we sat down and had lunch together and it all really came out. We were just like, ‘Dude, we're going through the same things.”’

Student 8: “The fact that [another graduate student] revealed to me that he was experiencing [depressive symptoms] when he was getting his graduate degree made me feel like he could understand my experience.”

No judgement – shared (often negative) experiences in graduate school

Student reports that they did not think they would be judged for revealing because they shared similar experiences, often negative ones, with another student during graduate school.

20%

Student 4: “There's such a sense of camaraderie in which [the other graduate students and I] are all experiencing this together, and so it was really easy [to reveal my depression]. The other graduate students at my institution talk about really personal issues all the time and are very supportive as a group in general.”

Student 17: First you're talking about things that you and the other student both worry about, and then those conversations become deeper, and more than just like, ‘I'm worried about how this experiment will go. I'm disappointed about this.’ Over time it becomes more [about depressive symptoms] like, ‘I don't know if I can do this. There's something that might be wrong with me.’”

Supportive reveal

Student wanted to reveal their depression to normalize struggling with mental health.

20%

Student 21: “I've just felt like I'm instilling the groundwork and [the other graduate students and I] should be allowed to talk about anything because we're suffering through this together. (…) So I was trying to make it comfortable for everyone to talk about [their mental health].”

Student 23: “It was really important to me that I share my experience because I think that mental illness is so isolating, it's really important to be a role model so that it can be accepted and let [my peers] know that other people around you are suffering with [depression].”

Preventative reveal

Student perceived that depression would impact or was impacting their mood or performance in research and revealed depression preemptively to avoid judgement or conflict. Once others notice or comment on one’s behavior related to depression the reveal becomes corrective instead of preventative.

17%

Student 26: " I was tired of being afraid that [the other graduate students] would figure out that I was lying [about why I was absent], or people would think that I was sketchy or unreliable on purpose, and so over the years, I've just decided that being honest about [my depression] is less stressful for me, and easier for me."

Student 40: “We collaborated a lot, and I was working with her on writing a paper and it just kind of got to the point where things probably weren't adding up to her. I gave her a general heads up and said, ‘I'm really sorry I'm not making as much progress on this. I've kind of been struggling with some mental health stuff and I'm doing the best I can.’”

Corrective reveal

Student reports that depression negatively affected their mood or performance in research, which was noticed by others. The student revealed their depression in an attempt to explain their mood or behavior.

11%

Student 4: “[The other graduate students] saw me getting worse and worse [with my depression] during my first year of graduate school. It was physically obvious because I would show up in the same clothes that I was wearing yesterday and was clearly very tired and sometimes checked out.”

Student 31: “I was having a really bad depressive episode in the middle of the lab. (…) My heart was going like a million miles an hour and I just started crying my eyes out at my desk after having closed the door. [Another graduate student] walked in five minutes later and saw me obviously in tears.”