My PhD has literally been an emotional rollercoaster -- sometimes, I feel like a manic-depressive.
In discussing this idea with other PhD's using a grounded theory approach, and have arrived at four key themes of PhD: depression, guilt, glory, and motivation.These themes are cyclic in nature, and can be extremely severe. Attimes, it can result in "academic suicide" in which someone decides tojust plain quit.

Depression: PhD work is lonely. You're on a path that no one else has travelled, and far too often, it seems like no one cares what you're doing.This may or may not be true, regardless, it feels this way. As a PhDstudent, you invest so much effort, so much energy into your work --and it's really personal energy since it is your work, and not something you don't care about. Often, this work gets rejected("We're sorry to inform you..."). This typically brings on a fresh waveof depression and self-doubt. That depression is accompanied byfeelings of apathy (what's the point?), and distaste (my projectsucks). That meta-realization of these secondary feelings (e.g. ofapathy) translate into more depression. This depression translates intoa slowing of actual PhD work. Output crawls at times to a grinding haltbecause of this emotional low.

Guilt: The offshoot of this"PhD Depression" is guilt. You feel like you're wasting your own time,the time of people around you, and the money of those around you. This crushing guilt is debilitating-- it makes you feel more depressed, which means that you do even lesswork. The consequence of low output is feeling extremely guilty. It'shard to feel good about oneself in this situation. One's own self-worthalways seems in question.

Glory: Sometimes, justsometimes, submitted work gets accepted ("We're happy to informyou..."). This outcome is often accompanied by ecstacy, chest thumping,fists in the air, and random shouts of elation. This energy is amazing but short-lived:after telling all of your closest friends and your family, getting theobligatory, "Congratulations," you realize that: (1) the world has(amazingly) not changed, and (2) still no one seems to care what you're doing. And so, you cycle back into that depression that we talked about earlier.Motivation:This emotional rollercoaster known as the PhD then has a significantimpact on motivation. Essentially what it means is that when you'reriding a big high, you need to use that high and just drain it to theutmost degree, squeezing the very last possible piece of productivityout of it while you can.
There are upsides to PhD's, don't get me wrong. It's just that the downsides are so much easier to talk about.
Next time: We will hear about 'what successful PhD students do...'

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I got this article from Internet and wanted to share with you.
L,K.

Haha, I like this, it seems to sum up many of the threads on this forum! The funny thing is, I actually have manic depression (only it's called bipolar disorder now, which thankfully sounds less scary!), and my PhD does the exact opposite for me...it stabilises me, it gives me meaning and motivation, it gives me confidence, a wealth of friends and colleagues, and lots more besides. Not to say that there aren't times I have been frustrated and stressed of course, I think that's a given for anyone doing research. But my PhD experience so far has been overwhelmingly positive...just as well, I'm not sure I could handle bipolar and a shitty PhD experience! Anyway, if anyone needs a cure for bipolar, I think academia has done the trick for me...they should try funding PhDs on the NHS! KB