That's right, sicker. At least insofar as sick is a social construct (more on that later). I'm speaking specifically about declining mental health, and for this short essay I focus on our most emergent of theatre and performance-studies scholars: our graduate students. Few of us would disagree that there has always been a significant amount of depression and anxiety among our masters and doctoral students. Recent studies, however, find that more grad students are reporting significant mental health issues today than in any past generation. Perhaps these higher numbers are simply a matter of different and better diagnosing. More likely, those entering graduate programs today have more stressors outside academia: family responsibilities, financial concerns, and culture-related anxiety (more minorities and other historically disenfranchised groups and international students are entering graduate programs than ever before). Moreover, the increase in treatments in the past decades has enabled more students with a history of mental health issues to make it to higher education. It's not the purpose of this short piece to suss out the kinds of student in our programs more likely to be mentally and emotionally distressed. Instead, I look at what we should be doing not to make it worse for the students we have in the years ahead, actions that will benefit the field as a whole and all of us individually.

中文翻译：

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我们的学科让我们病得更厉害

没错，病了。至少就生病是一种社会结构而言（稍后会详细介绍）。我专门谈论的是心理健康的下降，在这篇短文中，我关注的是我们最新兴的戏剧和表演研究学者：我们的研究生。我们中很少有人会不同意，我们的硕士和博士生中一直存在大量的抑郁和焦虑。然而，最近的研究发现，与过去任何一代相比，今天有更多的研究生报告了严重的心理健康问题。也许这些更高的数字只是不同和更好的诊断问题。更有可能的是，今天进入研究生课程的人在学术界之外有更多的压力：家庭责任、财务问题、和文化相关的焦虑（比以往任何时候都更多的少数民族和其他历史上被剥夺权利的群体和国际学生进入研究生课程）。此外，过去几十年治疗的增加使更多有心理健康问题的学生能够接受高等教育。这篇短文的目的不是要找出我们项目中更容易受到精神和情绪困扰的学生类型。相反，我着眼于我们应该做些什么，以免在未来几年让我们拥有的学生变得更糟，这些行动将使整个领域和我们所有人都受益。过去几十年治疗的增加使更多有心理健康问题的学生能够接受高等教育。这篇短文的目的不是要找出我们项目中更容易受到精神和情绪困扰的学生类型。相反，我着眼于我们应该做些什么，以免在未来几年让我们拥有的学生变得更糟，这些行动将使整个领域和我们所有人都受益。过去几十年治疗的增加使更多有心理健康问题的学生能够接受高等教育。这篇短文的目的不是要找出我们项目中更容易受到精神和情绪困扰的学生类型。相反，我着眼于我们应该做些什么，以免在未来几年让我们拥有的学生变得更糟，这些行动将使整个领域和我们所有人都受益。