I won £10 on the National Lottery. However, this happy news is counterbalanced by the fact that I have gained such in weight over the past week.

Heck, jepsonclough. I hope you don't mind me being nosey but what was the cause of it? Today has not been a waste for me because I have removed any excuse I have for not getting on with writing my chapters. I've analysed my data to death and my questionnaire is finished. Well, as far as any questionnaire can ever be finished...which is never.

I think as an occasional help, propranolol can be a very helpful B-blocker for helping deal with anxiety arising from presentations, oral exams and such like. Of course, your doctor will ensure that there are no contra-indications for you, such as being an asthmatic. The aim is just to slightly block the overriding actions of your sympathetic nervous system in the 'fight or flight' response associated with stressful situations. The dose you'll be prescribed is very low, so side-effects will be minimal. You might find you get cold hands and feet, for example. As other posters have said, it's a quick fix and not the long term answer, but you wouldn't get repeat prescriptions anyway (not that you'd need it). So, you can work on developing your presentation confidence and other coping strategies in the meantime.

As for it being a recreational drug, I can't imagine finding any drug dealer who would sell it. It's not the kind of drug you can take to get jollies from 'by no chance'.

I'm mildly excited because I'm going to watch the new A Team movie in about 10 mins. I'm slightly apprehensive at the same time because the original BA Baracus doesn't like it because people get killed in it. I'll post my move review tomorrow.

Like everyone else, Chrisrolinski, I'm very sad to hear that this has happened. I remember you saying that you had an inkling that this might happen. I know what you must be going through (and all the things you'll be thinking about) and it's very difficult to concentrate and focus on work. I hope that this doesn't come across wrong, but you have less than two weeks to get your thesis in, so be strong and just get it done and dusted - even if you can't just block what has happened out of your mind. I wish I had something wiser to say. Take care :-)

Today has not been a waste because, I'm about to listen to a new audiobook, do some sums and draw some graphs on my computer. Then I'm going to formulate a powerful argument for the way I have handled my numbers. Oh, and then I'm going to make some notes on some stuff.

I have achieved nothing so far, not a written or typed word, not a single firing neuron so far dedicated to work. So far just a headache, an argument with my sister's landlord over withholding her bond when he shouldn't (even though she never told me the whole story so I sounded like an uninformed idiot), scrambled eggs on toast and 2 cups of coffee. I'm just going to have to work till extra-late tonight to make up for it.

Hmph, I can't really improve on what C-bint has said. I can really, really empathise with you though. To be two thirds of the way through and have absolutely no motivation, to be sometimes petrified by the thought or what still remains to be done. And then there's the expectations of those around you versus the fact that you sometimes fantasise about quitting.
When I give my supervisor updates on my progress, she e-mails back 'happy motoring'. As if I sit working on my thesis with a big lunatic smile on my face, humming the Hi-Ho Snow White and the Seven Dwarves song. The only motoring I do is trips to Asda to buy pop and toffees - and it makes me really mad when I read it in the e-mails.
The only advice I give is to share my coping tactics. Some of them seem pathetic (they work or me though), but you might find some of them useful....

1) It will end. IT has to END, since every beginning has an ending - even the universe some day.
2) Like me, you're 2/3rds through the bugger -that means one more third - goal!
3) Not many people, proportionately speaking, have the title Dr. You will though. And to me it seems really exotic. I imagine I could be a James Bond baddie when I'm qualified. I wouldn't be a really evil one though, no-one would get hurt and my actions wouldn't have dire geopolitical consequences. I'll just do things like turn all the lakes in the Lake District into candy floss, or make it snow in the middle of Summer for 5 days in a row. Or genetically engineer big, dopey giant daddy long legs that crash into everything - that would be messed up.
4) It'll, hopefully, improve your employment prospects and, if research is to be believed, you'll earn even more money over you lifetime.
5) A PhD is so, so hard - and you'll have done it, got to the end. 'Yo, Adrianne, I did it!'.
6) Imagine graduation, that glass of campagne with the supervisors (which I've never had - but have been told it tastes like bubble gum)?
7) It's only once in a lifetime, the last great hurdle - there'll be nothing harder (other than child birth maybe) than this.
8) I don't know about you, but I'll feel like I'm able to watch Question Time and News Night with dignity. Doesn't matter that I don't really understand all the issues, I'll be a Dr of philosophy and it'll be my God-given right to watch it and enjoy it.
Finally,
9) You've started, so you'll finish. That's my mindset.

Don't forget to use this forum to monitor your progress and share your highs and lows. Hey, why not start a thread for encouragement and support - Corina's Continuation Thread? There are an awful lot of people on this forum that are going through what you are. We're all in it together.
:-)

Good luck, Chrisrolinski! I'm sure it won't be major corrections - and I'm certain it won't be a lacklustre thesis! We're our own worst critics (unless you're me and have no standards), and it can work for us and against us.

I've had to waste loads of time today grappling with the forces of reliability testing for a questionnaire system of measurement. Anyway, for demonstrating test-retest reliability, I finally settled on intraclass correlation co-efficients, Lin's Co-efficient of Concordance and a decided to go a bit descriptive with doing a Bland and Altman Limits of Agreement Plot. Now, I'm pretty sure the first two are fine - even though they are ordinal and strictly speaking...but everyone does it (papers galore use the same approach and I don't want to be left out with naff non-parametric tests that only null hypothesis fetishists use. But then there's the Bland and Altman plot - someone has said that it's naughty to use it on non-normally distributed data - and I've used convenience sampling and it's non-parametric. I was sweating at this point and thought about how I can justify it and there's a very strong argument for treating ordinal scales with 5 or more points as interval level data. And then a master of the psychometric dark arts has said that although strictly speaking it is naive to treat ordinal level data as interval (and so parametric), it can pragmatically be useful. And then people in the behavioural and social sciences do it. Sorry, I'll get to my point... So, I'm thinking I should go with using a Bland and Altman plot for agreement and not worry about the fact that I've used parametric statistics for ordinal level data, since it is popular and I can justify it. I have a pragmatic research world view anyway - and it's about the ends justifying the means. And I've spent a/wasted 2/3 of a day having to look into this. For anyone who knows about this stuff or is interested in this post, does that sound fair? Or is it a complete (turkey)?

Seems like you've got your work cut out for you there, Drjydo. Fortunately I know just the book to assist you. I grew up reading it and it hasn't done me any harm. For instance, did you know that elephants are the only mammals that can't jump and the only mammals, aside from humans, that can cry? I'm sure you'll find the answer you're after in this book: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Weetabix-Oxford-Illustrated-Book-Facts-Paperback-/320547789412

Yep, 'different'. Can I just say, that's really nice handwriting.

Hi Screwedup, may I ask what software it is? Is it very bespoke or more mainstream?

I don't know, Rakesh. You don't seem too sure about it. I need to help Rakesh find a solution for his problem?

The posts you've received are top notch. A PhD is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. With a 2.1 at undergrad level and a merit at Masters on top, you more than meet requirements. Like you, I got rejected from a number of PhD applications but just kept on trying, even did another degree in fact, and got accepted in the end. There is a lot of competition and you need to remember that sometimes candidates are already chosen internally for many PhDs. You just have to keep trying. Sometimes it's a question of who you know - that's how I got onto a funded PhD programme. Networking and knowing how to network can really help. I know it sounds really vague, but Ive got a book that you may find really helpful for your situation. PM me if you'd like me to e-mail it you. Good luck :-)