......I want to quit, I have had enough. I hate saying it here as the last thing other PhDers need is negative vibes but God I am fed up. I miss structure I miss being told what to do. I miss not having to take all the responsibility for what I do. I MISS NORMALITY. Most people think what I do is a laugh and how lucky I am to do 'nothing' all day. I wish I wish I had just taken a normal job. Sorry rant over don't feel you have to respond just good to launch it into the ether....

Kitten...also been hit with FF...only sat in on one UG lecture and the vile germs got me!!

I did my MA whilst pregnant with twins and completed my dissertation for it when my boys were about 6 weeks old. It was difficult but NOT impossible. I was lucky to not have to take on another job at the time but did have three other children and a house to run. As long as you and hubby are working together you can complete. I am now 2nd year of phd with the twins being just 2 and although sometimes difficult it can be done. Don't take her literally just prove her wrong!!!

Am in my own pit of despair at the moment so can't offer any help I'm afraid as I can't see a way out either but wanted you to know for what little it helps you are not the only one with self-doubt and worries. What I would say is to tell your sups how you are feeling. I did this for the first time this week and they were very supportive and did all they could to make me know I could succeed. Unfortunately I just can't get over the confidence issues yet and I don't know where to go with the thesis despite being given some guidelines to help me. Hugs to ya x

I have worked exclusively from home all the first year, just go in once a month for supervisions. This year I have requested a desk at uni as I am teaching too so want to make the best of my time.
I was told that it is quite feasible to work 10-4 mon-fri and complete a phd with no problems within 3 years...its the amount of work you do not the amount of hours you put in that makes the difference.
enjoy

Go for it!!!!! I am also at end of first year and am giving a 20 min presentation at a conference next month. I was also terrifeid at the thought of it but once I started to get my outline together I really thought 'I can do this'. Do say its a work in progress and at the end rather than ask if there are any questions ask if "anyone would like to contribute to or discuss' your thoughts so far...that way it conveys a shared discussion around ideas rather than a more confrontational conception of q&a. Also I think you will be surprised at how quickly 10 mins will go and they will not be able to ask anything too indepth off the back of a 10 min presentation. Great for confidence, great for CV...DO IT!!!!!

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Mmmmm well can't help much but I am a first year PhD Student and my sup has already asked if I wanted to do any reviewing for the journal they edit so I guess that its all about networking and getting recommendations. I'd start by compiling a list of publications you would like to be involved in and find out if any of these have links to your sup/dept/uni and identifying potential gatekeepers who can give you an introduction. If there are no connections I would start making them myself by introducing yourself and offering to review material etc. Basically I would keep knocking on doors till someone answered...or got out an injunction on me

Only 48000 words? And done in only a year?
I know its a continuation from work he started some years ago but seems a little suspect to me

mmm but as potential supervisors ourselves rea we looking at the possibility that we to have descended from the vulcan race or is this a case of genetic mutation through academic advancment...or maybe its more of a Borg thing where the conferring of the PhD signals the assimilation into a non-autonomous, emotionally devoid being comprised of componants from the department...not quite human any longer just a clone of the department handbook?

I never thought I had actually managed to break through the self-esteem platform, maybe I do need to take another look at where I have come to in light of the last year...you spend so long fighting to fulfill the mundane that you forget that there is anything beyond it...maybe I have managed to move on and up....maybe I really am not completely cuckoo!!

I thought you meant you wanted help to annoy people who had cited first

But def. echo the others its not about who cites what its about the context and conclusions you draw....but I do agree its horrible when you come across something you thought you had nailed first!!!

lol Chrisrolinski.......Don't even get me thinking about the possibility of the existance of the matrix

I'm off to look for Jostein Gaarder books, the holiday sounds good too but my irrational fear of flying makes it harder to be more exotic than Skegness...hopefully after my forced flight to a conference next month I'll be able to rethink that (if the plane doesent crash that is!!!

Hug embrace to you lot again x

Hey you lot, huge thanks and a big wwwHug. I posted thinking I may be going insane and at the most hoping for a good recommendation of a psychiatrist, now I think I may not be quite so out there after all. I can relate to the feeling of being outside yourself and seeing things happen around you. I hope maybe the way I am is being in the real world. My lovely other half reckons my life parrallels Neo in the matrix (except I am not 'the one'...I am not that far up my own bottom!!)Maybe I should stop analysing so much...either way I feel better knowing theres more of you like me out there cheers chaps you're great

Juno..I seem to live in a semi-permenant 3am state...only rousing from it when necessity calls...seriously!!
R...I like that way of thinking not insane merely human...was it Durkheim who said that mental instability was a rational reaction to a confusing world?
Cheers chaps I don't feel so 'out there' now....I wish I didnt think as much and that I could sometimes just shut my brain down for few hours.