I’m currently working on a PhD, and I had a meeting that felt like an intervention with my advisor where she encouraged me to take a few months away from the program to take care of myself. For context, I used to work for the airforce, and apparently I picked up some pretty severe mental health problems that have lead to not sleeping and panic attacks when I read papers about military hardware (not ideal when my current interest is hardware side cybersecurity).
What the fuck does “take care of yourself” mean? Like, I don’t know what to do with my hands. I’ve spent my entire life with a fast paced schedule, either with school work or some other crisis I’ve needed to attend to. Now I’m like… trying to accept going to therapy and I’m doing yoga with some people in my research group a few times a week, but i don’t know what to do with my time otherwise. I feel like smoking all of the weed in this state playing video games and rotting in bed isn’t the answer, but that’s where I’m at. I’d love any advice or to hear from anybody who’s been in that position of being told to take a few months off for mental health
Have you considered picking up a creative persuit? For example, learning an instrument, making a game, drawing stuff, that kind of thing? Hopefully should help with the feeling of not doing anything with your time (although be sure to not force yourself to do things when you don’t have the motivation to do so).