So I’m sure many of you will have read articles that describe Post-Grad Depression and how many recent graduates will experience it through moving away from their friends, change in lifestyle, not having a set routine and the big one unemployment. Graduating university is an exciting and life affirming time but leads to a very big dose of reality very fast and a growing amount of graduates are experiencing and suffering from Post-Grad Depression including me.

Even whilst writing that I’m experiencing Post-Grad Depression, I feel like I’m experiencing Impostor Syndrome at the same time. This is mainly because of all the articles I’ve read, the vast majority, if not all, say that the main cause of Post-Grad Depression is a post-uni ‘limbo’ where you’re struggling to find a job. This wasn’t the case for me. I had started applying for jobs around the same time I started writing my dissertation in first semester, so by the time my Graduation came around, I was a few weeks into my first full-time job and I had a relatively stable routine in my life after uni. But I knew I wasn’t happy.

Every day whilst I was thinking that having this new job and earning money was going to keep me happy and busy, as well as funding my being able to see my friends on weekends. I was slowly slipping into a funk. I wouldn’t respond to my friends for hours, sometimes days because I was so focused on making sure I was doing this job well and getting used to my new life. And I wouldn’t spend time with my family as I thought that they didn’t understand how hard it was for me to be away from my uni life. I needed to focus on what was important, the new job and making it successful.

This job was taking over everything. I’ll probably end up doing a full blog post about my time there but looking back after having left just over a month ago now, I can see that my upset at my family (of whom I moved in with having left uni) was actually upset at this job and what it was doing to my life.

I’m a person who’s never been good at keeping friends once I make them. Not in the way most people would think but just because I’m a very awkward and shy person. I won’t message someone if I feel like they won’t message me back or if I feel like they don’t really need me in their lives. There are so many great friendships I’ve lost over the years due to my being scared of making the first move and speaking to them. I was determined with the friends I had made at uni that this wasn’t going to happen. But I had moved almost 170 miles away from most of them and it was going to be much harder and a lot more expensive to see them regularly.

Now I’m unemployed, the feeling of Impostor Syndrome is slowly dwindling and I’m allowing myself to accept the fact that having Post-Grad Depression is okay as long as I take the time to look after myself and take each day as it comes. I’ve decided that everyday I will do something just for me, whether it be writing, re-learning how to play the piano, going for a walk, driving, going to the gym. I want to feel as happy as I can be even if I get waves of depression. I’m even considering seeing a therapist to talk about my mental health and find new ways of coping with it. But for now, my friends and family are what’s important to me. So each time I see my friends, although it is bittersweet, I make sure to spend as much time with them as possible before I have to go home again.

I’ve struggled with my mental health in the past but always took the method of trying to ignore it and power through as a way of dealing with it. Now I’m older, I realise I was doing more harm than good with that method and with the help of my friends and family I’m learning more ways of coping and bettering my mental health.

I have posted the links to five articles about Post-Grad Depression below which I have read and found helpful in different ways. If you are experiencing any of the symptoms of Post-Grad Depression or any mental health disorder please speak to someone and ask for help. It’s okay not to be okay.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/worklife/campus/a22575047/post-university-depression/
https://www.talkspace.com/blog/post-graduation-depression/
hercampus.com/her20s/5-signs-youre-experiencing-post-grad-depression
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4937814
https://www.themix.org.uk/work-and-study/your-career-path/managing-post-graduate-depression-29088.html