u/Different_Dance_3312

I was recommended a +$2,000 (AUD) “slider” splint, supposedly to reposition/decompress the joint and allow the disc to recover over a few months. I really struggle with bulky splints because they make me gag/feel like I can’t breathe.

I was also confused about the whole experience. The doctor was nice but he didn’t really give me a clear diagnose and he seemed to be against any other treatment except the one he sells which is suspicious.

I’ve found a small cheap pharmacy guard that only covers the back teeth, and surprisingly it reduces my headaches and tooth sensitivity. I have an open bite so I only bite on the back teeth.

Could something like this be a reasonable alternative, or are these appliances doing completely different things?

Would love to hear from anyone who’s had a similar experience.

Is it true DECRA does heavily favour people with very high publication numbers? I’m also curious why some applicants get only 1-2 assessments while others get 6-8. How is that fairly compared? What does a typical successful assessment profile look like?

And for those who have actually received a DECRA: was it what you expected? Did it give you the independence and career boost you hoped for, and ultimately, was it worth the effort/stress of getting it?

Would love to hear people’s experiences, especially from those a few years into their DECRA.

I’ve been really excited about my postdoc for the last couple of years, but lately I’ve started feeling completely disconnected from it. I’m trying to work out if I’m just burned out or if this is something deeper?

The parts of academia I enjoy are the research itself, the discovery part, finding gaps, understanding new concepts and having that feeling of figuring something out. But lately, even that doesn’t excite me. I look at papers and sometimes they almost seem ridiculous to me. It’s hard to explain. It’s like I suddenly stepped back and saw a life outside and somehow it made more sense.

I don’t particularly enjoy the teaching/supervising side of academia either, and the overall career just seems increasingly unsustainable. When I look at some of the senior academics around me, they don’t exactly seem happy either they seem constantly stressed and juggling a million things. But I know a career outside is not necessarily better and I’m scared of regretting it.

If this happened to you, how did you deal about the guilt of leaving? What happens to grants/fellowships you’ve already received, or grants you’re waiting to hear about? I feel incredibly ungrateful because my supervisor has supported me a lot and she has put so much effort into keeping me and creating opportunities for me.

I’m also wondering whether I should tell my supervisor how I’m feeling now, even before I start seriously looking for jobs, or whether it’s better to wait until I’m more certain? But it in the meantime is hard to work while I feel so disconnected.

For those who have left academia: did you feel like this before you left? Was it burnout, or did you eventually realise you just wanted a different life? And how did you deal with the guilt of leaving people who had supported you? I know everyone says if they care about you they will understand but how do you communicate what is happening to them without being too short notice or a surprise?

I’m curious whether this is just my experience, or if this is what postdoc life has become in Australia (and maybe elsewhere).

I’m about 4-5 years post-PhD in biotech. After finishing my PhD I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in academia, so I worked as a scientific officer at a university for about a year. Once I decided I did want to pursue academic research, I was fortunate enough to move straight into postdoc positions. I’ve actually been quite lucky in that I haven’t struggled to find postdoc jobs, which I know isn’t the norm.

What has confused me, though, is the nature of the work. Almost all of my contracts have been funded through industry collaborations, consultancy or contract research. In practice, this means I spend nearly all my time designing, setting up and running experiments to answer industry questions or deliver project outcomes. It’s valuable work, but there’s very little opportunity for publications, novel discovery, or pursuing interesting research questions. I even changed positions partly because I wanted more discovery-focused research, explained this to my new manager, and yet I’ve ended up in a very similar situation.

There are a few things I genuinely don’t understand.

1. I know that becoming a professor is extremely competitive and may not be achievable, but even simply progressing through academic levels (A to B or C) requires evidence of publications, grants, teaching, and service. How are postdocs supposed to develop that track record if most of their time is allocated to delivering industry projects rather than building their own research profile
2. How does someone become an independent researcher? Every fellowship or discovery grant seems to expect a strong publication record and preliminary data, but it’s very difficult to generate either when your job is almost entirely contract research.
3. If my day-to-day work is mostly delivering routine research for industry, what is the advantage of doing that within a university rather than working directly in industry, where the pay is generally better? Universities often talk about how much they value industry engagement, but promotion criteria still seem heavily weighted towards traditional academic outputs.

Despite all this, I have been trying to be positive and find opportunities wherever I can, using collaborations, etc. but in the end I constantly feel guilty as if I should be able to find time to do the “real research” and I beat myself up when the weekend arrives and cannot do it anymore or just don’t want to stay working until 9 pm another day to try to get something going in the lab for my own research (with little or non existing funding).

So I’m wondering… is this just what being a postdoc in Australia looks like now? Or have I simply been choosing the wrong positions?

I’d really like to hear from people at different universities, or from those who’ve managed to transition into more independent, discovery-driven research. I’m trying to figure out whether I should keep trying to make academia work and I’m not pushing hard enough or whether I’m misunderstanding how this stage of an academic career is supposed to work?