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Tolerating distress and regulating emotions in research

Boreal forest ecologist and clinical mental health counselor Jessie Young-Robertson understands the stress that can accompany field work in remote settings. When researchers end up at a field station or on a research vessel, it may not be possible to get space when experiencing the mental and emotional distress that comes with daily living and doing a difficult job.

“Science is hard, particularly in remote settings,” said Young-Robertson, a University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher who is presenting a paper on the topic at the 2022 American Geophysical Union meeting.

“I think people struggle with managing distress in general,” she said. “And I think sometimes we have a habit of not treating ourselves or each other very well when we’re experiencing distress.”

Young-Robertson noted that distress is different from stress.

“Distress is like a really big feeling and a moment that is hard to manage,” she said. “It could be anger; it could be a big burst of anxiety. It’s usually due to something stressful occurring, like equipment breaking, things not going as planned or interpersonal struggles. Long-term distress tolerance or management is emotion regulation.”

Sometimes when people are in distress, they may do unhelpful things like yell at a colleague or a student, she said. “That has no place in the workplace.” Unmanaged distress can also negatively impact our mental health.

“I think one of the barriers to being inclusive and diverse is that we don’t talk enough about interpersonal and mental health,” Young-Robertson said. “We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.

“And there are some tools that we can use for ourselves to get through the moment and manage things a little bit differently,” she said. Mindfulness aimed at distress tolerance is one of the most accessible tools people can use in remote research environments.