Dissertation Loneliness
Dear Dr. Ruth,
I have ADHD. All my strategies and life hacks worked during undergrad and my master level work but now the loneliness of dissertation work is overwhelming me. My ADHD brain is all over the place. It feels impossible. How do I handle the lonely work of research, data analysis, reading and writing my dissertation?
Signed,
Overwhelmed doctoral student
Dear Overwhelmed ADHD Doctoral Student,
Once your coursework is over, the doctoral journey can be pretty lonely. It might be hard to find someone to talk with about all the great ideas and concepts that you are so excited about. Your lead professor or advisor might have limited time to meet with you. Your fellow doctoral students are probably up to their ears with their own research. Your family and friends have their own lives and can’t really get into all the ideas you are working with. At the end of the day, it’s you and your laptop.
Dealing with negative self-talk in academia
What has to happen is this. You have to take the position of lead investigator in your research team of ONE. Even though you are the only person on your team, there are a myriad of voices at the table talking to you.
BE the lead investigator in your research.
There is the imposter syndrome voice telling you that your work won’t meet academic rigor. The imposter syndrome is telling you that your logic isn’t sound because you are not qualified to be doing doctoral work.
There is the inner critic telling you that your need a few more articles in your literature review or that your sample size isn’t large enough. There are the latent fears that tend to show up during your writing sessions. You name them they are there and making their voice be heard in your head.
Managing Inner Critic
This situation reminds me of the time in my life when I was a middle school teacher at a small Christian school. We took the kids on a field trip. The kids were excited and talking loudly. I was driving a big bulky van in the heavy traffic and needed all my focus to get to the museum.
Even though as their teacher I worked to nurture the love of learning in a warm supportive classroom culture, at that moment my main job was safety. I had to manage the noise level in order to accomplish my main job.
Very purposefully, I communicated to the kids to use their library voices and look out the window while I got through the ever changing traffic scene. Once we got to the museum, I was able to entertain questions and respond to my students’ comments.
Talk back to your inner critic
Back to your table with all those voices telling you why you can’t write and why you can’t do doctoral work. This is what you do. You firmly tell those negative voices that this is not the time for this conversation because your focus is to drive the van safely to your destination. Tell yourself that those voices will keep for a later time.
Keep the most important thing right in front of you. That is to get to your destination. What is your job? It isn’t to turn around and talk to the passengers. Your job is to drive the van.
Friendly voices in your head
Once those noisy negative voices quiet down, you will find that there are other voices at the table. But these are your friends. It is the voice of your participants. The voice of the authors in your key articles of your literature review. You will hear your own voice in response to the questions that came up in the last presentation you gave.
Dissertation loneliness
Writing your dissertation might be solitary work but you are not alone. You are engaging in a meaningful conversation with your audience.
Please note that your audience is NOT your committee.
Your audience are future doctoral students who will reference your work. Your audience are the participants who answered your survey. Your audience are your future students. The people whose lives you studied.
Keep your hands on the steering wheel. Drive the van. And get to your destination.
Warmly,
Dr. Ruth