Feel better. Slowly adjusting to the disappointment of another 4-6 weeks to submitting. Supervisor can't give me a date for the next meeting in 3 weeks as doesn't know when he is back, figures.

I now have a pot belly now from eating too many nice things over my very long writing up period
Keep posting if it helps, and we can reply.

I found it a long painful process and had a draft at the end of May (my 4th year), with a talk to my supervisor about how I was hoping it just needed quick reading so I could move on. My supervisor has only just read it, and now is finding big mistakes, and problems that he didn't pick up on in an earlier draft he read. Sorry, just bitter at the moment!
Hopefully Aug/Sep now.

Are you getting out at all? being stuck at home, no exercise and chocolate can make you more miserable.
I sometimes try to work solidly for long hours in the short term to make a lot of progress. You do need breaks, if you get really tired and get nowhere that can be really demoralising. Oh, getting up as if it were a job (I can struggle out of bed in the mornings, but I find it more productive) and setting targets for people to read and discuss it can help.
I can only sympathise, my date for submitting keeps moving further and further into the future and I still keep having to change sections, look things up, draw new diagrams and learn more. It does seem never-ending and not helped by people I know working in new jobs already, and being in the 4th year with no funding.

I'm glad you have a maybe better job and someonewhere to live. That really sucks about your ex and her job, I'd be furious.
I worked in a 1 week temp job last week on reception and got literally shouted at twice by a woman for forwarding important calls to her-which she chooses not to take, even as supervisor. I couldn't work out if her or my supervisor was worse.
The advantage with having "experience" in temp work is you can target better jobs. They refuse to believe you can walk the job if you don't have recent experience of stuffing envelopes!

My old Chemistry teacher had a PhD, and she was a good teacher and was head of department.

Thanks for your replies
I also forgot to mention I spent 2 years trying to get stable protein and the only sample of oligo went off and there was no more, and the prof decided he didn't want the paper he asked me to write. The collaborating professor is now able to produce more oligo and my supervisor's new student is going to do the experiment. With this experiment (providing it works) the evidence is very strong and interesting and definately worth a paper.

The reason he is being so thorough is I am weak defending my work so need a solid thesis in case I mess up the viva.
I feel rubbish, and stupid and let down for the umpteenth time.

The best bit, he has apparently finished off 5 theses (reorganised sections for say 2 days) to avoid people just not submitting! He told me this as he says it is the worst case senario but he's rather not do this!
He's left me hanging as usual as I can either wait 3 weeks for him to come back as will not get through everything this week. That would mean sumbitting late Aug-Sept (bear in mind I gave him a complete draft the end of May).
Or...I can get him to sign the paper and submit while he is away, maybe getting other people to read it.

I've just got back a thesis chapter from my supervisor and he said that it is difficult to read and not ready to submit. He compared it really poorly with a recent thesis in a viva. :(
I just hate the whole thing so much, I'm desperate to finish and want to give up academia, and I'm in my 4th year and have no money. After waiting 2 months for him to read my thesis he has found mistakes in this chapter he didn't spot the first time round (claims must be new bits) and he is suddenly unhappy with the style. I made all the corrections he suggested before. He will go over it on Friday before he goes away for 3 weeks (he apparently needs a holiday despite being one of these supervisors that is always away on conferences).

I'm not sure, but with postdocs a lot of money is paid for departmental office staff salaries from the research council. I'm guessing salaries of these staff, admin costs and equipment.
It is extortionate though....

There are some ways around dropping out figures e.g. not upgrading after 1st year to PhD, extensions e.g. health/depression. My friend took 6 years with extensions, time out etc.
It's not in their interest to advertise people dropping out...

On reflection I know someone who stopped after 1 year and changed career completely. I think he did Mphil which you could of course pretend later on was what you were aiming for.
It depends if you are staying in academia or not. I stuck it out for 3-4 years, it is hard and I was miserable. A lot of projects are quite long term in my area i.e. the research goes on for years and in fact people often don't get results in their first year anyway, and I didn't!
I wouldn't worry about your supervisor/the project that is down to your supervisor to co-ordinate, not you. People commonly change projects too, again I did.

I don't know anyone personally but it is possible to change PhD/write as MPhil, and best at year 1 when most people upgrade from MPhil to PhD anyway. It is fairly normal to question your abilities.
You would need to talk to a number of friendly academics to find out how they would see it. I'd get more than one opinion and not ask your supervisor (!) Speaking of which they did take you on for 3-4 years so they do have a responsibility. Departments can lose funding if students don't finish and there probably are some univeristy guidelines as to what to expecte from your supervisor. Is there anyone you can talk to at your university?

It is a combination of you and the supervisor to get through a PhD. If you're having such doubts a good supervisor would be offering you some support. It sounds like you picked a supervisor that is not easy to work with. Could you take on a second supervisor, or get advice from someone else on how you are doing? A lot of supervisors are trouble, mine doesn't bother much and needs hasselling if you need help. The question is can you put up with this for up to 4 years and complete. There are options to change PhD or write as MPhil which are ideal at the year 1 stage.