Hey,
I feel exactly the same way with both of my supervisors! One is exceptionally busy, so I barely see her, and the other is around all the time. However, when I ask for help he never has any answers or useful suggestions! I'm also in the lab, and coming up with all of my experiments on my own as well as trouble shooting is seriously exhausting. I'm on the verge of leaving as I'm just so fed up with it. I too have lost respect, as awful as it sounds I can't believe he even got his academic job in the first place.
Sadly I can't offer any useful advice, only that you're not the only one in this frustrating position!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the supportive messages.

RinaL:
Yes that's exactly why I stopped attending as I was worried about getting another date, which sadly has already happened and I'm due to do it next month!
I am able to chose a paper, however, there are very few interesting publications in my field and you're meant to have recent papers, which really really limits me. I picked a some-what related paper last time, and then after I left my supervisor told my lab mate that it was 'boring', which did heaps for my confidence.
The students don't really speak in the journal club (unless presenting), its the lecturers and post-docs which do all the talking, which makes it even more threatening for me :(

Hey,
This is embarrassing, but I’ve basically developed an extreme journal club fear. My lab has a journal club with three other labs (so ~ 12 people), someone presents a paper and then there’s discussion etc. My field of research has nothing to do with these other labs, so I find their papers incredibly repetitive and boring anyway. I was due to give my presentation but I feel extremely ill with anxiety (I have an anxiety disorder) and I ended up taking around a week off work due to recover and my presentation was cancelled. I never actually told my supervisor it was the club that was causing a major problem. Since then I haven’t attended and my supervisors visibly getting annoyed with me. I don’t want to go back and I’m due to give a presentation in a few months and its already causing me anxiety. I feel as though as I’m failing as a PhD student as this stuff is expected of me :/. Any advice would be much appreciated xx

Hi all,
I started my Biology PhD in October, so I'm ~ 8 months in. This was something that I wanted for a long time and I worked extremely hard during my undergraduate degree to achieve it. The first three months went great and I was generating loads of data. However, the past 5 months have been horrible. I've spent multiple weekends sat tearful on the sofa, cried in the university toilets (which is out of character for me), turned up late for work on multiple occasions and I've had to take quite a few days sick leave to re-cooperate. I feel incredibly rubbish and that I aren't good enough to complete it. I'm constantly looking at others and how happy they seem and how they can generate data etc, yet my project just seems utterly rubbish. Should I just quit? This is all I ever wanted so I'm frustrated and have no idea what else I would do with my life, alongside the worry of disappointing my family and supervisor.
Thanks for any advice.