PhD support group?

charts

Heth wrote:

Well I'm now in my 3rd year and to be honest I can't imagine having anything near a thesis in a years time, I don't even have a decent plan of what I want/need to do and my model is still not really working. I'm thinking more and more about giving up, I'm so depressed about it, but I just can't motivate myself to do this anymore and I've never really enjoyed it anyway. Just not sure what to do if I do give up.

Heth - do speak to your supervisor(s) at least. Having experienced problems with my thesis I know it felt so much better when I finally had a full and frank discussion about things. Think carefully about whether or not you want to give up and don't make the decision in a hurry. If you're really not enjoying the work your doing at the moment, might it be possible to have a slight change of emphasis to give you a fresh avenue of investgation?

Whatever the case, you have my sympathy and respect for posting how you're feeling on here.

Good luck.

cupid_s

Heth wrote:

Well I'm now in my 3rd year and to be honest I can't imagine having anything near a thesis in a years time, I don't even have a decent plan of what I want/need to do and my model is still not really working. I'm thinking more and more about giving up, I'm so depressed about it, but I just can't motivate myself to do this anymore and I've never really enjoyed it anyway. Just not sure what to do if I do give up.

I went through this a while ago (middle of 2nd year) and seriously was on the verge of giving up. I was so frustrated and had so little motivation as things hadn't worked for so long I couldn't be bothered to do anything anymore (and my fellow PhD student had died suddenly which didn't help any of us). Luckily my supervisor noticed something was wrong and pulled me aside and said I didn't seem to be as enthusiastic as I was when I started. I had a good old cry which involved me telling my supervisor I was !!!!!! and couldn't do it and wanted to leave and would never finish a thesis, then I cried some more. He told me I wasn't !!!!!! (or he wouldn't have taken me on - a fair point I suppose) and he worked really closely with me for a few weeks till I was feeling a bit better about things.

I am now just starting my third year and have gone from being pretty convinced I wont even finish within 4 years, to imagining I'll only overrun by a few months. I am enjoying what I'm doing so much more and have more meetings with my supervisor to check how things are going and now have a good thesis plan.

I know everyone has a panic period but I'm not sure everyone gets as bad as you and me. But if you haven't done so already speak to your supervisor or even advisor or anyone else at the uni. They wouldn't have given you a place if they didn't truly believe you were capable of doing it.

Just think it'll only be a couple of years till you're Dr Heth and it'll all be worth it then!

Heth_2

Thanks everyone for your advise, am not going to give up yet. I think I just got very overwhelmed with the start of the new year, as well as finding it hard to get away from phd thoughts at home (husband has just over a month left to re-write his thesis). I guess it's just a case of plodding on...thanks again though for all the kind words.

melancholly

Heth wrote:

Thanks everyone for your advise, am not going to give up yet. I think I just got very overwhelmed with the start of the new year, as well as finding it hard to get away from phd thoughts at home (husband has just over a month left to re-write his thesis). I guess it's just a case of plodding on...thanks again though for all the kind words.

glad to hear you're feeling a bit better - never underestimate the value of an MSE rant!!

laserboy_2

Heth wrote:

Thanks everyone for your advise, am not going to give up yet. I think I just got very overwhelmed with the start of the new year, as well as finding it hard to get away from phd thoughts at home (husband has just over a month left to re-write his thesis). I guess it's just a case of plodding on...thanks again though for all the kind words.

Having two people at home trying to do PhDs is never going to be easy. At least you're not both writing up at the same time (and therefore also both skint). If your relationship can survive that, then you are on to something good.

Well done for choosing to tough it out. You know it makes sense.

talksalot81

laserboy wrote:

Having two people at home trying to do PhDs is never going to be easy. At least you're not both writing up at the same time (and therefore also both skint). If your relationship can survive that, then you are on to something good.

Well done for choosing to tough it out. You know it makes sense.

Who said anything about being skint while writing up? It is far from unreasonable to be writing up in the second half of 3rd year whilst you still are getting funded!

melancholly

talksalot81 wrote:

Who said anything about being skint while writing up? It is far from unreasonable to be writing up in the second half of 3rd year whilst you still are getting funded!

i wish i thought i could manage that - i'll still be collecting data next summer so even if i write stuff up as i go along, there will be at least 1/2 months of writing up after the end of 3 years......... i can't see an alternative atm

talksalot81

Have you got anything written up already? I spent some of my hols writing up in 1st and 2nd year so by the time I started writing for real, I had about 1/3 already drafted which really speeds you along.

melancholly

talksalot81 wrote:

Have you got anything written up already? I spent some of my hols writing up in 1st and 2nd year so by the time I started writing for real, I had about 1/3 already drafted which really speeds you along.

yeah - i have stuff done and a paper almost ready for submission. the problem with my area is that so many papers are coming out that any literature review will be out of date very quickly. i didn't have any holiday in my second year either (but going away next month for the sake of my sanity!)......

talksalot81

Well if you have stuff done, the write up should not take anywhere near as long as if not. Keep in mind you will already have overcome the initial difficulty of starting (which can take some people a considerable time). So as long as you can hammer out a few more results, the write up should fly in!