{"id":943066,"date":"2026-05-07T04:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943066\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:55:24","slug":"im-burnt-out-and-leaving-academia-how-do-i-finish-my-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943066\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m burnt out and leaving academia. How do I finish my PhD?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The problem<\/p>\n

Dear Nature, <\/p>\n

I\u2019m a particle physicist in the third year of my PhD programme in Central Europe. When I began working in academia, I was really motivated, interested and passionate about doing research. I wanted to become a professor and build a successful career in my field. Over the past few years, I\u2019ve pushed myself hard, sometimes working 10 or 11 hours a day, five or six days a week. <\/p>\n

For months, I didn\u2019t realize that I was burnt out, but looking back, the signals were there. I felt physically exhausted and I knew that I needed a holiday. While I was working, thoughts would pop up such as \u201cmaybe this isn\u2019t for me\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t belong here\u201d. I kept ignoring the signs until eventually, about eight months ago, I broke down. I had very limited mental energy to perform my research. Eventually, I couldn\u2019t even enjoy activities outside research, such as watching a film, or concentrate on simple things, including taking out the rubbish. My girlfriend and some of my friends even pointed out that something needed to change because I wasn\u2019t able to function properly in daily life any more. <\/p>\n

I reached a point of severe burnout, which led me to question the academic system and my own goals in it. Since then, I\u2019ve made the decision to let go of my dream of becoming an academic and look for careers in industry instead. But I still have a year to go in my PhD programme and I don\u2019t know how to find the motivation to continue. How do I regain focus, cope with my burnout and finish my degree? \u2014 <\/b>A fatigued physicist<\/b><\/p>\n

The advice<\/p>\n

Burnout is everywhere. Nearly half (48%) of workers from eight countries reported feeling burnt out in a 2023 survey<\/a> by the Boston Consulting Group in Massachusetts. According to the 2026 State of the Workplace Report by the analytics and advisory company Gallup in Washington DC, 64% of employees are not engaged in their work and 40% reported feeling stressed daily. Burnout can be particularly pervasive in academic settings, in which researchers often feel intense pressure to perform. Nature\u2019s careers team sought advice from two psychology researchers and a workplace strategist about how to cope with burnout while pursuing a PhD. <\/p>\n

Acknowledge the signs<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization defines burnout as an occupational phenomenon that results from chronic workplace stress and is characterized by three dimensions: feeling exhausted, increased mental distance from one\u2019s job and reduced professional efficacy. <\/p>\n

Simply acknowledging the problem is key, says Amir Kabunga, a psychologist at Lira University in Uganda. \u201cThank you for acknowledging that you are burnt out,\u201d Kabunga says. \u201cThat is the first step.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How I managed my intense burnout<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u201cThe enthusiasm and intense commitment that often characterize the early stages of an academic or professional path are natural expressions of youthful idealism \u2014 a sense of boundless possibility,\u201d says Beata Ma\u0144kowska, an occupational burnout researcher at the University of Gda\u0144sk in Poland. \u201cImportantly, you have engaged in deep and honest self-reflection. You have begun to see your situation clearly, moving from idealism towards realism and sound judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with recognizing your own symptoms of burnout and the impacts that they are having on your professional and personal life, you critically analysed the limitations of pursuing an academic career. This is something to be proud of, Ma\u0144kowska says.<\/p>\n

Take time to recover<\/p>\n

The next step is to take some time away from the academic environment. \u201cThe only way to treat burnout is to interrupt the stress cycle,\u201d says Jennifer Moss, author of the 2021 book The Burnout Epidemic, who is based in Kitchener, Canada. \u201cYou have to take a meaningful break in which you\u2019re just focusing on rest and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because you\u2019ve been exposed to high levels of stress for quite some time, there\u2019s no way to power through or work harder to overcome burnout, Moss says. The best thing to do is to pause, rest, then reassess how you feel about your PhD and career path from a place of clarity. But Moss acknowledges that taking long periods of time away from your laboratory is a privilege that not everyone can afford. Financial constraints can make it difficult to prioritize personal well-being over income. Talk to your academic advisor and friends to discuss what opportunities are available for supporting a prolonged break. \u201cMake it clear that if you got this space, you could come back in a way that\u2019s much more engaged, clear-minded and productive; it\u2019s better for the research and it\u2019s better for the team,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The problem Dear Nature, I\u2019m a particle physicist in the third year of my PhD programme in Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3858,105,3941,3965,125392,3966,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-943066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-careers","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-humanities-and-social-sciences","12":"tag-lab-life","13":"tag-multidisciplinary","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116531517419936831","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}