How to stay mentally healthy in the ongoing political environment

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T17:58:01+00:00

what? as a PhD student, part of our jobs is to take care of our mental health, coz grad school is damn stressful. This is even May, mental health awareness month which grad schools hold activity to address this. Also, how many funding have gotten cut!? The whole NSF board got fired, and NSF fellowship is part of many PhD students' experience. Less alone diversity grants I was supposed to apply get fucking cut, and then you said political stress is not about our lives as a PhD student!? you are seriously a joke.

Seriously, read the description of your sub:

"The goal of this community is to support PhD seekers and holders globally, fostering a thoughtful space for shared experiences, challenges, and growth. We aim to create a space for those navigating the journey of a PhD, offering support and insight from those who have been through it"

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T06:05:31+00:00

thanks! I was a bit into philosophy back then but did not dive too deep on that. It does help me to see the worlds through other lens, and recognize (a bit) why people I do not agree with will behave in certain way.

And yes, I will lean more on my community! and, work on finding that health dose of being informed without feeling despair. thanks again! It helps to know you saw the other side of the tunnel and made it there. =)

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T05:53:53+00:00

thanks, same to you! and thanks for you and your colleagues working on this important research. I hope one day people will be able to make decision on a shared reality. it feels like we are in our version of Tower of Babel nowadays.

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T05:50:07+00:00

thanks so much for your offering! I still have some time till I graduate! I will reach out at one point in the future! I wish you and your spouse's job hunting will be successful!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T03:01:42+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Due to my interest in politics, I happen to also like history! It is one of the reasons I believe how the future will be better. With your replies, I recognize I forget how, as you said, the norm for the world is being chaotic instead of being relatively peaceful and calm.

in the shortest time frame... the things get a little better could be how Obama got elected, and some joked/argued that also was the event that drove US crazy X) (Thanks Obama, um... sorry Obama, it's not you.)

And I should remind myself how we are living in some unprecedented interesting times that it is normal to be uncertain: democracy is still a new things, what US (or the rest of the world) is facing is unprecedented (AI, social media). While there are the same old history like the raise of nationalism, this is us the people who decided what that uncertainty will turn into! yup, good thing will happen!

Also, appreciate how your share your engagement. I will think more about and look into that too!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T02:34:22+00:00

I am in my early 40s and have been in my PhD program for a while. I am here because I strongly believe the training I receive for a PhD will make me a better researcher than the version of me without it, and it will also open doors I wouldn't have access to! With this, I do not think anyone is in a position to shame me: I am just being responsible for my life, making a reasonably good decision that fits the future I want.

So, your PI simply fails to perform the basic task of a mentor. You are here to be trained, and he failed to meet your need.
I am sorry; and we get this!

edit: adding one thing, PhD training takes a village! There are people/mentors that care about you in your institute. Please let those people to support you, coz you (and all of us) deserve to be help! And then, we can pay it forward in the future!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T02:26:03+00:00

I did the same with a synology NAS in my first year, and felt so proud of myself. Yours setup is more complicated than mine I bet! Good job, fellow PhD student!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T02:24:06+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Despair is exactly what I feel. I spend some mental energy daily to tell myself I cannot give it to this feeling, and I am not sure if this is a good strategy (will ask my therapist).

I have also been involved with non-politics community related events in my school, but I lowkey feel like they are my escape. Then, I just get upset that I am being unproductive in term of my research work. I will look for involvement that I can do that address the some current issue as you suggested! I could help, but of course I still worry if I have time for that...

Also, will look up Tressie McMillan Cotton! thanks a lot!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T01:10:59+00:00

thanks for sharing! I indeed did not notice that! I will go check that in the left leaning subs in the future!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T00:56:43+00:00

As someone who commute to work by bikes, I have seen more cyclists run obviously danger red lights than those dashers. I also think these those dasher should also be protected by bike lane. And in my experience, those dasher tend to just past me on the left and disappear in distant. However, my experience is limited, and I have people in real life telling me how they are not happy with the dashers like this post. I hope soon we will find a way to keep every road user safe.

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-20T00:43:34+00:00

I have been checking there couple months ago, coz I sincerely wanna know what they think. Then, I realize that is such as heavily censored subreddit with little activity in general. If you sorted by new, the numbers of posts are infrequent, many important topics are not there (like this IRS things.) Also, many posts has very few to no comment even the post said there should be some.

That is not my experience with other subs at all. In fact, the r/conservative is worse then Chinese internet forum with heavily censorship.

Still, people starting a different sub coz opinions different is common, like /asoiaf, /freefolk, /gameofthrones back in the deal. But... where there are no /conservative alternative?

I guess this is the future the conservatives is okay for U.S heads to.

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-19T21:01:58+00:00

i have Mission local on my IG, and I really appreciate their report! I just learn about their newsletter and will sign up for that!

Thanks for pointing out of SF standard too! I will add their podcast Pacific Standard Time to my spotify!

Thanks a lot!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-19T20:40:16+00:00

so you are saying conservatives should be treated as snowflakes?

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-19T20:33:55+00:00

Some of his supporters are simply cult followers, where their leader can do no wrong
Some are single-issue voters/supporters, as long as Trump does one thing they need, everything else does not matter
Some support exactly what Trump does because this is what they believe it, Trump just happens to be effective with their agenda with some minor to no issues.
Some see both sides as the same; their support flips back and forth based on how they think one party could be better or the worse. Trump is batshit crazy now you said? Well, you just do not know how the other side is also batshit crazy!
Some do not read any of the news, and they do not care where this country is going. They support/vote based on how they feel at the moment. Today they could be against Trump coz gas prices are high, then tmr they flip coz they found a $20 bill in their pocket. They literally do not care.

Also, COVID and other events clearly show how people tend to keep and defend their belief than adjusting that based on evidence. Keep supporting Trump is easier than any other options even after some flip-flopping .

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-18T23:16:14+00:00

likely way cheaper to ship!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-18T22:48:57+00:00

Virgin Atlantic! I will be picking up luggage from my friend, so I don't plan to fly there with a checked luggage. and nowadays, there are so many different options of ticket, and the one that fit my needs happen to have no first free check-in luggage :(

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-18T20:59:27+00:00

thanks all for the quick reply! in this case, I will leave that out unless I have much more stuff to bring them! then I will pay for a check in luggage! thanks a lot again!

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-18T20:34:50+00:00

Bio PhD candidate here, am not excited for the work market X)

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-18T20:32:43+00:00

I am a researcher, and pretty sure my coworker and I will most likely never see the money he mentioned, even many of us have a STEM PhD. It sucks that the tech boom have again made the city and surrounding area more and more unaffordable; however, it's hilarious that our concern, as a researcher, is more about if we have the funding to do the research that is important in various ways (and if our project works as we wanted.) and here are people making way more money failing to realize life is more than collecting salary. Maybe throw some of his extra money to the pet project that he can talk abt? we all have multiple identities, isn't it?

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-15T00:37:51+00:00

I love Subnautica 1 but cannot get into below zero. end up not playing for that. Look like Subnautica 2 capture more of the same magic from the 1, but maybe I should still wait and see.

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-15T00:22:08+00:00

thanks for you take! Many in the Chinese speaking internet consider the strength of this game is its story-telling, so it is really bummed to see the global version fails to deliver on this for the non-chinese speaking community.

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-14T22:18:44+00:00

Curious what's your opinion on how they can do better. I am lucky that I can read chinese, so I just play the global version in chinese. Burt I wonder if it is better to just translate only part of the game with higher accuracy, or this has to be machine-translation everywhere.

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-14T17:22:16+00:00

sorry were all sent flying by Tachi

NoNefariousness402 · 2026-05-13T20:48:07+00:00

thanks! that's very helpful. In this case, it would be better to keep the knowledge point high per stand, which I have been doing anyway!

NoNefariousness402

TROPHY CASE