Research Mental Check

Purpose

Provide a structured reflection space for the emotional and psychological side of research life, drawn directly from the New Researcher Handbook's sections on mental health (8.4.4), rest (8.4.5), and the planning fallacy (8.4.6). The skill is designed to help the user name what they're feeling, recognize patterns, and reframe unhelpful internal scripts — not to provide therapy or crisis support.

This is the most important skill not to overreach. It's a thinking-with-a-friend space, not a clinical intervention. When signs of real crisis appear, the response is always: "I think this is beyond what this skill can help with. Please reach out to [campus counseling / a mental health professional / a trusted person]."

When to Use

• User expresses imposter syndrome, inadequacy, or constant comparison
• User mentions inability to rest, guilt about non-work time, rest-as-laziness scripts
• User describes chronic over-promising and under-delivering with emotional cost
• User sounds exhausted in ways that aren't purely physical
• User is coming off a setback (rejection, failed experiment, hard meeting) and is catastrophizing
• Any of the above surfaces incidentally in what otherwise looks like a technical question

The Check-in Workflow