Episode 92: Beyond- Astronomy is a little Mental

Astronomy is hard! And in ways that extend far beyond the science we do every day. In this Beyond episode, Kiersten and Cormac talk all about mental health in astronomy and the structural issues that may be contributing to things like burnout and anxiety. It’s not all doom and gloom though. There are a few things that studies suggest that can help. We also chat about strategies that have helped us when we were struggling in hopes that they may be useful to you too. We round off with Cormac’s Hai-cool poetic riff for our one sentence summary.

Papers discussed:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.01768

https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4089

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048733317300422?via=ihub

https://comm.wayne.edu/files/keashly_spectra2015.pdf

Cormac’s shameless plug for the Early Career Astronomers’ session at the European Astronomical Society’s meeting:

https://eas.unige.ch/EAS2024/session.jsp?id=SS23

Crisis hotlines and remote support:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (US): +1-800-273-8255 (live chat also available on website; hearing-impaired TTY users can also dial 800-799-4889)

National Crisis Text Line: text/SMS HOME to 741741 for US; to 686868 for Canada; to 85258 for the UK

Crisis Services Canada: +1-833-456-4566 (text/SMS and live chat also available on website)

Samaritans (UK and Ireland): +44 116 123 (email also available on website)

The Trevor Project (US): +1-866-488-7386 (text/SMS and live chat also available on website; the lifeline will talk with any individual regardless of sexuality or gender)

Trans Lifeline: US: +1-877-565-8860; Canada: +1-877-330-6366

TelefonSeelSorge (Germany): 0800 / 111 0 111 or https://online.telefonseelsorge.de/index.php