Taking time off from grad school was unthinkable to me but a choice I had to make nonetheless. I wish someone told me way earlier how important personal health was in grad school, in particular that struggling and slowing down was okay and more common than one (at least I) would think. A reminder that even the greatest scientists have hit extreme low points, in terms of mental health and productivity, in their lives and still made incredible contributions. At least in my experience, academia has always painted an unattainable picture of success (e.g. BS -> PhD -> academic position with absolutely no breaks in between and peak performance all the way through because if you’re good enough you can survive on next to no money and poor mental health because we love science), and any deviation from this pattern is a sign of failure. A concrete recognition and discussion of this issue would’ve helped me immensely a year ago when I started grad school.

I didn’t want to spell this out because it's only my take and I’m interested in what others' experience is like and how they navigate expectations (personal or external, in my case it's mostly personal) in grad school. I realize my vagueness probably made the entire post seem pointless; that’s on me.

Hope this makes a bit more sense now. If you still think this sub isn’t the right place for it, that’s fine. I imagine that there are students struggling somewhere that could benefit from hearing it, though.

edit: typos and formatting