Hi Myostatin,

I do work very long hours (I am at work at least 9 hours a day, then come home and usually work another 3-4 hours). And I also work at home on the weekends. Part of me wonders whether part of the problem is that I don't get enough time off to do other stuff...

Hi everyone,

I'm about 6 months into my PhD in life sciences/medicine, and am starting to get quite down. Although I have quite a nice supervisor, and people in the group are pretty nice, it's quite a high pressure environment and you really are expected to be quite productive and on top of things.

I've somehow managed to be volunteered for a whole bunch of different aspects of the general topic I'm working on (all do relate to what I'm doing, but there's just quite a lot to get on top of). I feel like it's all getting on top of me, and it doesn't help that I'm really disorganised! To do each one of these things, I need to learn a lot of new skills, and I feel that because I've been trying to do so many different things at the same time, each of which is a pretty major undertaking, the end result is that I'm not really achieving anything, and am losing track of everything I'm doing. I have really high expectations of myself, and am quite sensitive to how I feel others around me perceive me, and so all this is really starting to get me down coz I just feel incredibly stupid all the time, and that I'm a big fake, and that everyone around me must realise how clueless I am and see me as a waste of space who doesn't produce anything.

I just have no idea how to interpret a lot of the data that I'm producing, so no real way of knowing whether anything I'm doing is right or wrong :(. Really at a loss as to what to do.....

I'd really appreciate any thoughts or advice.... Thanks.

Grr... this is just a general rant, I don't know what's going on, but for the last week or so every time I check this forum and go to a thread, I can't see the original post, only the replies. Is anyone else having the same problem? Anyone know how to fix this?

Explorer, trust me I feel your pain! I'm in a very similar situation, and the expectations just seem rediculous.

I wish I had some advice I could give you, but all I can say is that you're not alone, a lot of us find ourselves in this situation, but good on you for doing your best, and just keep working hard.

Is your supervisor open to you maybe talking to him about it? Maybe you could tell him that you feel you would be able to produce results much faster if there was someone experienced who could maybe show you once how to do things, just to give you an idea.

Anyways, good luck, and keep us posted on how things go!

I'm still swithering as to what to do. I am debating telling him that I need him to actually give me some space to think without him breathing down my neck all the time. Not sure if he would take offence at that.

I agree that bullies shouldn't win, and I really don't want to end up leaving like this, coz I feel that would mean he defeated me and I couldn't hack it.

I'm trying to take everyone's advice and take my time and be as rational as possible about things....

Thanks so much for all the advice, guys, it's just really nice to know that there are people out there who have been through the same type of experience and lived to tell the tale!

I am going to take your advice on keeping a written record of things that happen, just in case.

I'm gonna try and take it one day at a time and see how things go. If he continues to treat me this way I'll take it up with someone senior at the university. I'm seriously hoping it won't come to that, though.

A lot of other people in my lab are pretty unhappy with his treatment, so if it gets really bad, maybe we could all put in a complaint together, hopefully the uni would be forced to take it seriously if an entire lab of people all want to quit!

Hi,
I'm having a real problem with my PhD just now and I'm not sure what to do. I am doing a lab-based PhD at an excellent university. I'm 6 months in and I really feel so depressed and unhappy. My supervisor is basically really demanding, and keeps making me feel like I'm achieving nothing, puts me under pressure all the time, and says that I should be producing data already. He basically always puts the blame on everyone else, and several other people in the lab feel under a lot of pressure too.
He has also made comments which I feel are inappropriate (e.g. about my clothing, and whether I am dating my flatmate!). I don't know whether this is a normal way to joke with your student and I'm just being too sensitive here or whether I am right to find it inappropriate.

I don't know what to do, the idea of quitting seems abhorent to me, and I'm scared to confront him, so feel really stuck!!! Plus it would kill my parents if I backed out.

Any thoughts? Thanks :-)

Hi

I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this, but for those of you out there who would like to use EndNote but don't have it, there is a web version of it called EndNote Web. It is a slightly simplified version of EndNote, but I find it brilliant coz you can access it from anywhere since it is online, and you can also transfer files between the web edition and your home EndNote library (also very handy if you use EndNote at home, but want to also have access to your library from work). Oh yeah, and it's free to register!

The link is: www.endnoteweb.com

Hi :-)

I am a PhD student in London, UK, and would like to use the Promega psiCHECK 2 dual luciferase reporter plasmid, which carries the firefly and Renilla luciferase reporter genes for one of my experiments.

The problem is it is quite expensive to buy, and as a PhD student I don't have access to very much money for my project, and so am really hoping I can find a lab/plasmid repository from whom I might be able to get it. I've tried places like addgene, but they don't seem to sell it. I'm getting pretty desperate at this stage!

Is there any kind soul here who could help me out?

Thanks so much in advance!

Hi

I have no idea whether you're still looking for this info, but is it Anne-Marie Staub that you're looking for, by any chance? This isn't my area, but I did a quick PubMed search, and she seems to have done some work in this area.

Hope this is helpful Good luck!

Thanks for the responses, folks, it really helps to know that other people feel this way too sometimes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I can make it through the planning stage! I'm sure it'll get better once I'm busy with labwork, coz I love being at the bench, I think I'm just finding the planning bit really stressful, coz I'm scared that I don't have enough plans in place yet.

Thanks again everyone :)

Hey

This is the first time for me to post here. Sorry to sound like I'm whining, but I don't feel like I can talk to anyone about how I'm feeling.

I'm 9 weeks into my PhD and feeling totally depressed and underconfident about it. I'm trying to put together a research proposal (due soon), and feel the scribbles I've been trying to put down are total rubbish and that I'll never get it together in time. Am constantly stressed about it, I even have nightmares about work every night. I feel so stupid all the time and hate feeling like this.

While my supervisor is a nice guy, he has high expectations of everyone who works for him, and I'm his first PhD student. I never feel like he's at all impressed with any of my ideas. Part of the problem is that I feel i know so little about the subject that I'm scared stiff during all our meetings because he inevitably asks me questions I don't know the answers to.

Is this the way a PhD feels? Will I feel like this throughout? I hate that I can't seem to cope!

Any advice would be much appreciated!