I'm so excited I could cry tears of joy!!!! I'm off to watch the videos, I'm not in Banking and Finance but who cares - Simon Dixon will help me 8-) I've just set up a little shrine to him above my computer so that I can show him how much I adore him for his help :-x

Incidentally, I too have rolexes and lots of people who want to transfer oodles of money into my account to help them out, its all just too exciting. I also have been promised a bigger penis - I don't have one at the moment so I'm intrigued by how to grow one, its just all too much to take! The excitement is overwhelming me and now Simon has come into my life too - I'm the luckiest girl alive!

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I struggle to get to a 10, not sure I ever will! ahh well, at least I'm not still in the 20s lol.

I HATE gyms, hate those mega fit people charging around not breaking sweat while I'm half dead hanging on for dear life lol lol lol That's why I prefer to work out away from the gym, I'd love access to all that equipment but the 'going there' puts me off, it seems daft to get in a car and drive and then run lol (I live in the middle of nowhere, no footpaths, no mains water even... the nearest gym is 6 miles away - not being a lazy gymbunny ;-) ) - and the expense - I looked into it and nearly died of shock! I love exercise workout dvds - my fave atm is (hangs head in shame) the Steps workout one - remember the cheezy group from the 90s? I love it, mainly because of the eye candy - its Claire (not eye candy obviously) and then all these majorly fit guys AND, when it gets to the combat workout stage, they take their tops off - its certainly enough to motivate a girl :-x;-)

I have a treadmill, rower and 'real' bike and love working out on them - god bless Ebay and freecycle lol. For your arms the cross trainer and rowing machine are great but you could also do with doing some resistance work, kettle bells, weights, push ups, reverse tri push ups, most of it is stuff you can do at your desk actually pretty much! Arms respond pretty quick if you work hard on them, the thighs... well, they take longer lol lol - i love running through, cellulite killer, bum raiser and thigh and calf toner all in one :-) I'm much the same as you by the sound of it - 5'6" and size 10-12 but I've come down from a size 22 this time last year so have a lot of work to do tightening everything up and putting it all back where it should be ;-)

Hi there, I've suffered on and off with anxiety since my teens and although I've managed to avoid the worst of the OCD route its a nightmare! Mine manifests primarily with full blown panic attacks and general worries - I completely relate to your fears of things being stolen, flooded etc (I just read Flood again - fantastic book but not good for people like us lol) I did try and get help but I found that nothing worked really - it does for a lot of people but I've learnt to control it myself, particularly the creeping OCD - if you're noticing it then you can beat it. I'll still get up at 2am for the umpteenth time to check the doors are locked if I let myself, but then I force myself to slow down, think through it carefullly - I actually at one point made myself a tick chart for doors, cables etc and would tick them off - that way I could see for myself that I really had done it and force myself to breath, acknowledge that nothing needed doing and stop - I'll actually shout STOP at myself at times bring myself under control. There are some great books that will help - I don't have the details to hand but can help you with that - its all about stopping that fight or flight mechanism from overwhelming you and re-establishing control of your mind. The problem is that stress builds up, silly little things, then bigger things on top, we worry, we lose sleep and our body can't deal with it so considers that an attack is imminent - whoosh goes the adrenaline and other normal physical reactions but there is no 'threat' and it all goes haywire.

Anyway, you're totally normal, you can beat it, if you can acknowledge it you can get help or if its early enough help yourself - it won't 'go away' as such, but it is beatable and controllable - just don't allow it to go out of control and become a habit - then its far harder to beat - took me close to 10 years to beat my panic attacks because I didn't deal with it early.

Lmao Wally 8-) what fun we can have on flights after we've graduated!!!

Slizor - there can't be much worse than being a political science pg around the time of an election!

Bug, maybe you mix with all the right people ;-)(up) you mean you've NEVER had the 'real' doctor comment??? Heavens girl, you're missing out!!! ;-)

Awww I so envy you!!!!! Tell you what, send me your files, I'll do your corrections and you do my thesis :-) Its gotta be better than suffering The Simpsons surely??? :p Last little push and you've given birth to your pretty bound thesis and then its just a case of wearing the gown and silly hat (up)

Yes, I know the disgust look, or more often the triumph one - the ha! I know something you don't - call yourself an expert do you???? look....

lol Wally, it does grind you down after a while - I also love the 'so what are you going to do with your degree?' - worded that way I love it - Answer: frame it and stick it on the wall (up) Its the one my Gran comes out with, and my dad - and the, well, when are you going to get a real job and stop this studying thing, mind you, its much easier than working isn't it >:(

Sigh..... there is that clincher though - the one we all know and love that incites more violent intent in the heart of a stressed out PhD student than any other..... the..... yeh, but you won't be a REAL dr will you... *insert smug look- instantly wiped off by a flying piece of 2x4, saucepan, brick, whatever is to hand.....*

Ha ha, you psychologists should try being a historian!!!! They try and catch you out all the time - soooooo..... who ordered the charge at the battle of whereever in 1245?? huh? huh? oooh you don't know? Thought you were a historian!! (do you get that Chris or is it just me who suffers?) Trying to explain that I'm actually a social and cultural historian studying a certain sector within a time frame of 60 years in a specific geographical location tends to stump them! They think I should know everything that has ever happened everywhere in the world since creation!

Sorry... the syndromes and the can you tell what I'm thinking are just classics - I think with the latter I'd be tempted to say that no..its impossible... you need to have a working braincell for me to do that :p

Oh I feel your pain! I get asked much the same questions again and again and they are enough to make me weep!

Even my hubby tends to do it, his favourite is saying that when I'm done I can then miraculously immediately gain a great job and he can give up work - its enough to make me cry, literally - you'd have thought he'd have got it by now - talk about piling on the pressure! The chances are there will be no job in the current economic and academic climate - the chances of anything beyond a short term contract are remote. Actually, why the hell are we doing this?

Sounds like a real rollercoaster of a day :-) Excellent news on the contacts and the paper. They say this game is all about networking and you're showing that in style!

Awww at your son... its hard when you miss the first day, but I think we build it up more than they do :-) I cried buckets the days my kids went to pre-school, then to infant school, then to junior school, don't even go there with secondary school, and I even shed a bit of a tear last week when my daughter went to college. This time next year I'll be facing my son leaving home to go to uni (argghhhhhhhhhh :'( ) Lol at him rushing off though and so glad he had a good time :-)

Hi Adeline9999, welcome to the forum.

Your feelings sound much the same as a lot of people here at one time or another. You don't say how much further you have to go, are your f/t? If so then surely it can only be another few months to a year? The way I see it is that you can view the PhD as a job if you want to, ok its a very poorly paid one but in absolutely any job, any career, heck, even in normal parts of life, marriage/kids/bills etc you'd feel like this at times. Nobody said that a PhD would be an exhilarating ride start to finish, nobody said that we'd necessarily like the people we work with, and yes, at times you feel like you're just slogging away. The thing is that if you quit now you've spent 3 years of your life working towards, well, nothing unless you transfer to an Mphil or masters. Yes, you'll have transferable skills blah blah, but it sounds as though (and forgive me if I've misunderstood) you want to quit because you're fed up, don't feel appreciated and don't like the working atmosphere. Playing devil's advocate here say you pursue your chosen career path and find yourself in a place where you feel much the same, can you quit then? How many times can you do that before your CV starts to look decidedly dodgy?

I'm one of the world's greatest quitters. I've failed at everything, I've never stuck at anything and seen it through til the end, I've never held a job for more than a year! Now though its different. There's times I hate my PhD with a passion, I've written more 'I quit' emails to my supervisor in the last few months than I've had hot dinners (I end up deleting them before sending them). I've sat here crying my eyes out but then I think about how I'll feel if I do quit and what I and my family have sacrificed for nothing and it keeps me going, more with grim determination than anything. Some people quit and are happy with it, most you'll find have the most awful mourning period. Some have quit through ill health, severe depression etc - that is very different from quitting after so long and so close to the end because you are dissatisfied with life.

Nobody here will tell you what to do, nobody can, but what you're working towards is more than a funny gown and hat and a title, its showing employers that you have the ability to work independantly, get on with people, collaborate, organise your time but more than anything that you're a sticker, that you'll go through the very fires of hell to get what you want to achieve. You can explain away your decision to leave and find good reasons that will sound ok, but you will always then live with the what ifs and if onlys.

I bow to your greatness!!!! These could be tracks for the PhD band that was mentioned so many moons ago :-)

Ha ha, fabulous Teek :-) Now waiting with baited breath for Wally's offering - may have to hang around a bit - procrastinating.... me.... never :p

I don't have access to this - sorry, the only one close is Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership

My favourite place - I'm starting there soon doing a PhD in jelly bean counting 8-) I aim to have at least 7 or 8 within the next few months, just need to rob a few more banks first but I can't resist the idea of one crocheting place mats!

Seriously though Sheena, as the others have said they are worthless and anyone who's opinion is worth anything knows that - they buy a title the same as you can go to an auction and buy a Lord of the Manor title. It means nothing, is nothing to be proud of really whereas those of us who do it the proper way have something to show for it all at the end :-)