I think that Rosy was trying to focus on what people can do to survive the PhD in good form, with recognition that anyone is prone to having a bad time with this, given the stressors and working conditions presented. I think her idea of finding out how people DO cope is important. I have full sympathy and empathy for anyone who is struggling with anxiety, depression and the like in the midst of their PhD. The PhD really invites this kind of response--so understanding how people are working to cope and stay well is important!

I think I am staying sane. I have the every day aggravations that just come with life, like a very slow computer on a very slow network but other than that right now I do not have any major complaints. The PhD has its moments that are enjoyable, others that are boring, few that are highly stress ridden.

And grim student digs are not a great place to live! I can attest to that. You are fortunate indeed to get the PhD of choice and location of choice. I miss being at "home" doing my PhD work. Yes, there are benefits from being in the UK and at the university and not distance learning, but there were also massive plusses being in my community, with family and friends and so forth. Having ties to home is nothing to sneer at, its important.

I read and I started doing my lit. review right away. My supervising prof said to just start to write. So I did. Did I have anything to say? Well...in hindsight.... no, but I had to start somewhere. So I did. There was nowhere to go but up. I think it challenges your brain in a more active way to have to write about things than to just take notes on them. It forces you to interact with the material and struggle with it. How many times have I thought I "got" something from passive reading, and then found out I had not gotten it well enough to write?

I find I have to read an article about four times to really "get" it at the level I need, if that is any consolation. So I do, I read each article and my notes again and again, over a few days, until it feels locked in my brain, and I will then try to type out some paragraphs on it, even if I never use those for anything, it really does help your understanding to have to express the concepts.

I quit my fulltime, mid-management decently paying job to move to another country and finish my PhD. Do you think I ever feel panic and worried about the choice? You better believe it. Especially with the economy tanking in the US, it can feel scary. I try not to think about those things, but being human, of course you do. I try to use the feelings of fright and panic to motivate myself to do a fantastic PhD. Fear is a good motivator!!!!

its hard to have perspective when you feel depressed and overwhelmed, it consumes you, but what helped me was to realise it was NOT an accurate view of the world, it was very distorted. It id not make the views or feelings go away at once, but it gave me some distance from them, and to realise they were not necessarily the feelings on which I wanted to base decisions or act. I tried to just put life into coast for awhile, and get by without any more major demands on myself...hence the clean underwear rule.

Short term memory can be overwhelmed in stressful conditions, and that could be why its hard to remember what you read--your brain has too much to do with just coping. I had to write my phone numbers on my hand to remember them, and I cannot count the number of times that I got lost when driving--I could barely cross town without getting lost--again, because my brain just could not cope. I used to wonder if I would ever feel "normal" again, and if I would ever stop crying for two hours a day.

The answer was yes, but it took a lot of time. And sometimes it felt like two steps forward, one step back, or even two steps backwards and no steps forward.

I had what I called the "clean underwear rule." I guess in Britain that would be the " clean knickers rule." And that rule was that the only thing you might accomplish on a given day was to put on clean underwear/knickers--but you had to be at least functional enough to have clean underwear for the day. After that, whatever you could achieve..well...there were good days and bad days. I used to sob in my car my entire hour commute to and from work. I was so stressed I could not remember my new phone numbers for home or work, or my addresses.

I am no expert on mental health issues, but its been told to me that the feelings of depression and anxiety tend to be worse in the morning, if you are struggling with those, and so you might feel at your most wretched when you first wake up!!! Simply getting up whether you think that you can or not might help things!

When I was going through my divorce ( though amicable) it was so stressful. It rates up there on one of life's most stressful events. I compounded that by changing jobs and moving half way across the country--which---I am glad I did ultimately, but it added to the stress factor.

Wow! Firstly, I don't think anyone should apologise for their emotional state, especially when there are feelings of depression, sadness and anxiety. You do not CHOOSE to feel like that. Those emotions come on for a variety of reasons that can include brain chemicals or environmental ones, or whatever...you don't hit a switch and pick them! Who would? That said, its very scary to feel isolated, anxious, hopeless...and that it will never get better!

There is more social cohesion because of people gathering together for longer periods of time,increasing the sense of community...or something...use your imagination a little bit. Dip your toe in the water. See what you come up with.

There is a wide range of views on this of course, but I say, esp. in the social sciences, just jump in and start "thinking out loud" when you write. As you write, the ideas start to form in an active way that they do NOT when you read. Try lining up three articles with the same main subject matter ( like...oh...whatever, palm trees contribution to social well being--that is made up) and then talk about how the articles are the same, and where they differ. As you look at the convergence/divergence your brain should start to work and say, yeah...BUT! and there is a gap. Or you could just start out and say that the existing research on why palm trees are connected to social well being do not take into account the importance of frequent tea breaks ( or some other aspect of social well being) and try to form some conceptual links between palm trees and tea breaks, i.e. if you can take your tea break under a palm tree, you have more social well being--why?

Thanks all for the information and suggestions. I will follow up and see where this gets to!

What do offices of Trading Standards do?? Do they handle consumer complaints? It looks as if they might be a government body with which I can make a complaint. In which case I shall certainly call round and do so.

The US has something called the Better Business Bureau that takes consumer complaints on businesses, maintains a rating system on businesses, and becomes involved in trying to resolve consumer disputes.

Might the Trading Standards office have a similar function? Oh, what a way to get educated about consumer protection!

I will have a look at that option. I am also going to see if I can get a consultation with a soliciter and see if I have any consumer rights protection as a result of the botched transaction. I did a websearch on line regarding other problems that people have had with this company, and I appear to be in a large crowd. I will never do business with this company again, but in the meantime, I am going to pursue my claim as far as I can do. The absolutely foul "customer service" has not helped my view on anything.