hi jinkim, I just thought I would share my experiences last night. I cried over a microwave and iron :-( I think its just getting stressful near to xmas and everything is getting too much. We moved in to my mother in laws house - leaving our old house empty, but with most of our furniture in. Her microwave and iron both broke, so we brought ours up for her to borrow. She has broken the microwave and ruined the iron, so it doesn't work anymore (I think she must have ironed on VERY hot, with no water in it or something). And now it comes time for us to move out and she has bought herself a new microwave and iron and told me I can have mine back! Just to put this in perspective, I have NO money, her husband brings in £400k, yes £400k a year. So we are left to try and afford a new microwave and iron just before xmas and I just completely lost it (in a very english way in my own room haha).

HELLO JINKIM,

OK i was like that most of the time during my writing, it is a heavy process and it is normal i guess to feel like that.
why people say am sorry to talk about my feelings!! isn't that what friends and family for? I think just writing my feelings makes a huge difference in my mood so it is good that we share, and if you want to cry then cry what is the harm in that? I found out that i was crying a bit every day for sometime, then I listen to some nice music after that i feel energised and start to write again and forget about everything.


I think there are other reasons for the crying apart from the writing and the Christmas season? well it was for me, so many things to handle at the same time it gets so lonely and i have to say the more you talk about it the more people will not understand you, so for me, i just cry a bit, rest a bit and then go to write a bit.
I don't mean to be so negative, but what i mean is just try and try it will be all over soon, and believe me it might sound stupid now, but there will be times when you miss this period (no one is asking you to do things, every one knows it is hard and leaves you alone, no work obligations, you are in complete control of your time...etc) at least it was like that for me.

May be as every one said take a break for few days and just go talk with your supervisor about the project (you can say i have questions about some new papers etc), not about problems, it will make you remember why you liked your research in the first place and start to get motivated (again it worked for me and it was good to leave the desk and just to discuss the project, what is new etc).


Hope this will help,

if you want help let us know, we are all the same

(gift)

hey guys,

Thanks so much again for your responses.

Sneaks... I feel your pain for the iron and microwave... I once lent my tumble drier to my mom when her's broke (I never used it) and once she had her replaced she lent mine to my brother, and I believe it is now in tumble-drier heaven and I have clothes maidens and radiators to dry my clothes.

I feel much better (mentally - I've woken up with a cold... booo). I told my OH and mom about my meltdown over the bag of crisps and they thought it was hilarious. My OH even walked to the postbox in the rain to post my letter of complaint to walkers, and humoured me saying I should have told them how they ruined my day. That made me smile.

Cobweb... that's genius. I may call up the MD of Walkers. Maybe they'll give me a lifetime supply of crisps. I'll request dorito's though. Not sure I can stomach potato crisps after yesterday!

I'm taking a day off today. 8-)

good to hear it jinkim!

Sorry to hear all of those problems, they sound crazy making. I found the writing up phase the worst part of the PhD ( am now on the backend of a successful viva, with only minor corrections, so I lived to tell the tale). Many were the nights and days I wanted to throw the entire thesis out the window, followed by the computer and printer. The night I was trying to print out a final copy to get bound, I thought my printer was going to set itself on fire from overheating. Hours later I had one copy --and took it to be professionally photocopied as I did not think I could cope with the printer to get any more copies out of it. The ( expensive) photocopiers gave me back a big pile of junk, with pages out of order, miscopied, missing....so when I returned to address this with them, had a strop at ME over their bad copying ( I was offering to repay entirely if they would only do it right...) At this point, I just felt like giving up. ( in the end they made me new correct copies but for a fee!)

And so it went. It was a nightmare. I felt like the Betty Grable "What fresh hell is this?" phrase everytime I opened an email, tried to do something on the thesis, answered the phone. Or the night I discovered foot note 137 repeating itself down the page, but with different references each time in it....how that happened...I never will know...I blamed the ghost that haunts my university building for trying to ghostwrite :P

Perhaps not for everyone but for some the writing up is just a fresh hell period...every day has its own version..and its all made worse because you can nearly glimpse the end...it just seems so far away...

I sympathise with that losing your mind feeling. I felt like I was going to. I had days when someone would say "How are you?" and it made me burst into tears!!!! You really aren't losing your mind, you are just finishing a thesis.

Hang in there. Keep going. I sympathise with your experience...but you can get through it and you will get through it, and I can say from this side of it, that it was all worth it...( glares at printer...stupid hunk of plastic junk....lots of help you were!)

Hey guys...

Just wanted to give an update on the walkers crisps situation... I got a reply today with £4.50 worth of walkers vouchers. whoop :-)

The reply really made me laugh though... my favourite line from the letter was "I trust you have now recovered from your experience"... erm not really, but I'll survive. haha.

Merry Christmas all, and to all a Happy New Year!!(tree)

Excellent result! ;-) Don't spend the £4.50 all at once though!

Merry Christmas to you too. (tree)