Hello,

I have started my PhD very recently but already am not enjoying it. The research which promised to be quite interesting has taken a route which I am not enjoying at all. It doesn't seem like this route is going to change and I really don't like the idea of spending 3-4 years of my life carrying out research which I am not at all interested in and which will not benefit my career.

I also suffer from anxiety disorder and OCD which I am usually able to manage but the stress of my PhD has exacerbated both of these conditions.

I know that there is the possibility at my university of downgrading to a masters course but am not sure of the details. I would like to know about this so at least I know I have the option if the PhD becomes too much to cope with. I am a funded student and would also like to know what the situation is with regards to repaying the grants if I decide to quit or change to a masters. The problem I am having is that I don't know how to find out this information. Obviously I don't want to go to my supervisor with these questions and was wondering if somebody on the forum might be able to suggest a way in which I could ask these questions confidentially?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Have you spoken to your supervisor whether it is possible to go down another route you are interested in?

I wasn't enjoying my PhD at the end of my first year because I wasn't doing something I was all that interested in but I identified a direction I wanted to go, discussed it with my supervisor, and that led to what became the main theme of my PhD.

Hey Mh270! I don't know much about the downgrading to a masters or the funding situation I'm afraid, but one thing I would say is that the PhD is a long slog and I think that you are completely right to be concerned if at this point you are sure that the topic doesn't interest you. I love my PhD but I couldn't go through it if I wasn't completely in love with my subject, although some people manage to! It might be worth doing a bit of research to see whether there is any way that you can have some flexibility in what you are doing- you say that the topic initially looked interesting so perhaps there is scope to have a shift in focus? It might also be worth searching for older posts about the funding situation- I'm pretty sure other people have posted on here with very similar questions. Where is the funding from? If it is from a research council then if you contact them they should be able to let you know what the situation would be if you decided not to proceed with the PhD. If you are funded through the department I am not sure, but I would imagine that somebody in the financial side of things would be able to tell you without it having to get back to your supervisor. Good luck with it, hope things work out for you. Best, KB