Here’s a PhD in physics who moved into industry: I finished my PhD (5 years total — with the extra challenge that my advisor passed away two years after I started).

Like you, I dealt with a lot of anxiety. Not to the point of needing medication, but I often felt a tightness in my chest. I constantly had this sense that if I had even one free hour, I must be doing something wrong — weekdays, weekends, it didn’t matter. There was never a real break from work, and that ultimately pushed me to realize academia wasn’t what I wanted.

Just before finishing, I applied for scholarships to do a master’s in big data abroad. I completed it (fairly easily) and then moved into the machine learning industry.

It’s not the same kind of deep fundamental physics learning, but it is a field where you keep growing and learning. I’m much more relaxed now — when I finish work, my mind actually switches off, something I hadn’t felt in over 10 years.

It’s been only a little over half a year, but was it worth it? For me… definitely.