Haha, thanks Eska. I can't say I know much about film and film culture I'm afraid, so unless you set them questions such as:

Rocky 2 was better than Rocky. Discuss.

or,

Compare and contrast Tropic Thunder with There's Something About Mary.

I really won't be much help. I'll take a look for guidelines on how to reference personal communications online now you've suggested it.

Just a quick question I thought I would ask. I'm working on my methodology chapter and I'm using a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach. Anyway, all the books usually describe this methodology as consisting of 2 phases, but mine has 3 phases. I can't find any books or papers that describe 3 phase studies and so decided to ask some experts if it was okay by e-mail. They got back to me and said fine, critiqued the current books as being a bit to prescriptive and said I should go ahead. SO my question is, can I reference these as personal communications in my thesis?

Don't mean to seem facetious but I want to do some marking! 2 years and 3 months into my PhD and I've never had to do it once! My Saturday evening is proving no better than yours, except for my mountain of work entails working on chapters for my work.

Mark87, like you, I have never been on a plane in my life. And, like you, I have a very strong feeling of flying. I know we get all this stuff about, statistically, you being more likely to die in a car crash but still I'm terrified of the idea of flying on a plane. However, I absolutely think that you should not drop out because of this.
Conferences are important for networking and future career prospects; it also looks very good on your CV if you present at one. I think that you should just explain to your sup that you have a great fear of flying, a phobia. It's not your fault afterall, nothing intentional, you just have a phobia or an irrational fear. You can always attend conferences in other years of your PhD. In my first year, I never attended any conferences and if any will involve flying in future, I will refuse to go. And you can argue you weren't lieing, because you can say the idea of flying never came to you as a fear until you've actually had to consider it proper. In fact, you can even explain that you've tried very hard to overcome the problem by considering intending classes and then explain the problems you have experienced trying to do this.
And since you're only 3 months in, try and relax, these are just teething problems. I remember when I was three months in and realised that my methodology was useless - I had to change so much of my work.

Helen_G, I can identify with you completely. The feeling at a complete loss, work at a standstill and the perception of a general lack of progress. I, too, have a lot of dark thoughts doing my PhD and somtimes wish I was as far away from it and the commitments as possible. I also drink more than I should in a fruitless effort to just try and cope and manage. I worry about a future and being happy and see all my friends happily settled down and in careers, just enjoying life. I can't sleep either. As for your panic attacks? I have those too. My chest can feel tense, I get palpitations and it sometimes feel hard to even breathe at times. And then trying to get to sleep - that's a nightmare! My heart starts to race, I can feel pulses pounding in my ears and I just have to sit up - it's very weird.

The advice you have been given is gold - I can't add to it and I can't even seem to follow it. I do think you need to see a doctor about this because I think you could benefit from an axiolytic, just something to help you recharge your batteries. And you need to get some kind of work balance. As was helpfully pointed out below, you have to be kind to yourself. There's only so many hours you can work and there's only so much you can take. I know it's a cliche, but it is a marathon and there has to be pace. I know you've only got around 3 months left to submit and I gather you are behind somewhat (so am I, really), but I think you should look at extending your deadline. With the way you feel now and the amount I perceive you need to cover in 3 months, it could be too much.

I think you should talk to your sups. Are they aware of your situation and how you feel? Something my supervisor says (and she must think I'm such a melodramatic bitch with the amount I moan and complain about my work and stress to her) is that a supervisor has to wear many hats because a PhD is not just another qualification, it's someone's life for several years. A good supervisor isn't just interested in the development of your work; they're interested in the development of you. Life throws all kinds of crap at a lot of PhD students that can knock us down, but then we get back up again. Like a Staffordshire bull terrier, we're a tenacious breed and we don't let go. You obviously care a great deal about your work (look what it does to you and what it does to me and others) and you deserve your PhD. You just need some help and support to get there, like everyone, like me.

You will get your PhD and you'll look back on this as just how strong you are as a person and you'll realise just how far you've come. Take care.

Thanks for the different gift bug. I've got so many cans of deodorant for Chrimbo that my room needs a 'Highly Explosive' sign to meet Coshh standards. I'm living, sleeping and working in a giant bomb...a frightening realisation.

Happy new year everyone. God, I'm rough as a bear's bum. I'm a bit skint so I purposefully had very little to eat yesterday in the hope that I wouldn't need to buy much beer to get into the party spirit. It worked - a little too well. Probably a bit too much of a socialite last night as well. It seems that I gave out my number to a lot of people last night because I'm getting very strange text messages from people I don't even know. Oh, and yeah, I remember talking to a 6'5" transvestite with a Desperate Dan jaw (he wasn't very convincing anyway) and thinking those high heels really don't go with your rugby thighs and calves. Ah well, back to work...

Yeah, sorry Sue2604, Eska is right, I was being ironic. That moobs man was being silly and I way just toying. Eska, you do realise that, like with really expensively wrapped presents where once you take the wrapper off they're often disappointing, the likes of Beckham are just photoshopped and air brushed to some impossible ideal. Ricky Gervais, however, good choice :-) Since you like real men (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycZ9N3eeiZY), I recommend you give Sylvester Stallone a look up. :-)

I am indeed, EV. I'm hoping tomorrow, with the start of the new year, things will be different. I like to think of this wasted time as 'charging my batteries' time.

Well, I suppose I better sit my post-Chrimbo fat arse on the other side of the optimism-pessimism see-saw before it tips over because, however hypocritical of me it may sound, I'm really fed up with all the triple espresso negativity which seems to have infused the arse-end of 2009. Read the papers, watch the news, watch the TV and do a bit of impromptu atheoretical thematic analysis and there's a general pattern to everything: shit creek, paddle, global waming, cuts, more cuts, Dave Cameron, austerity medicine, hard times.
I think, at the risk of sounding weird, we really need to protect ourselves from all this negativity; it's like a vicious cycle - that I can do without with only 9 months of my PhD to go. Of course be realistic but, seriously, life's too short for all this cortisol-inducing stress.
The way things seem to me at the moment, it begs the question of 'why bother?' if things are really, truly, impossibly so bad?

Anyway, not to digress from the thread, I think he'll probably stay in the end. I also think that, ultimately, everything will turn out ok-ish for UK universities and ourselves.

Peter Bloody Madelson, or Mandy to his mates, that's all I can say. Whilst taking a break from my studies for a few days I have been following the plight of HE with interest, in the face of the recession. Not because I'm a doom monger or owt, more because the changes which are afoot seem great in scope and severe in terms of their implications. Cuts of £135 million to the UK HE budget, mainly concentrated at the level of teaching. Suggestions that degrees need to be even more flexible, possibly cut to 2 years in length in many cases. An increase in tuition fees proposed of up to £30, 000 a year (so suggested by one dotty don), for those judged to be able to afford it. More cuts to the financial support systems for students. And then there's the REF - don't get me started there. 10 years of expansion and progress in HE seems like to snuffed out.
If this is the taste of austerity medicine to make us all better from the over indulgencies of those flagrant bankers that David Cameron (sorry, Dave) et al say is necessary to, erm, make us a world class and flourishing country once again, I'm really not sure I can swallow it. It has been said that research will be spared from the cuts but common sense suggests that this will not be the case, Leeds University being a good case in point. I'm not trying to scare monger of, dare I say it moan, but c'mmon Dave and Brown, this is a knowledge-based economy and if people like us don't get a chance of getting our foot on the ladder, then how will we compete with the rest of the world?:-s

Hi Sue2604, I've got 9 months to go (well, as far as funding is concerned) and I'll be working longs days and nights, so I'll keep you company. Hopefully, I can feed off your motivation, along with others who join this thread.