Hi,

I was wondering if this is an issue anyone else has experienced?

In the past I had a few people in my life who I could talk to about different research issues or my own research. Now during my PhD I'm really missing this and I've read that loneliness and isolation are quite common.

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for dealing with this. I guess you could call it 'intellectual support'?

I only see my supervisor monthly, my fellow PhD students are all so busy with their own research and I don't want to bore my partner with the details of my work. I'd love the opportunity to engage more with others about my own work and also hear about theirs. I'm currently midway through a 3 year full time PhD and still doing lots of ongoing refining. Have I got selfish or unreasonable expectations?

Any advice welcome.

Thanks.

GM.

LOL I have settled with 3 options:

1: Torturing family and friends....I can usually get 2.5 sentences into my research before their eyes glaze over. Its quite hilarious.

2: Listen to other candidates go on about their research. Its a welcome distraction, and keeps my mind "agile". Some ideas actually come to me form listening to others rant.

3: This is the most popular one. I have settled with talking to myself out loud while doing chores or sitting in traffic. Surprisingly satisfying.

Keep up the good work and the audiences will come. Heck people will pay good money to come in and listen to you rant :P

Could you get together with two or three students who are working on fairly related topics and present your work to each other. I did this because I really lack confidence in public speaking so I realised I needed to practise talking about my work. We don't do very formal presentations but one person talks about an aspect of their work and the others comment. A friend of mine said she had a simular group when she was writing up and they used to read drafts of each other's chapters. If you're feeling isolated then probably others are too and they might welcome a chance to get together

Following on from what AislingB says: is there any kind of postgraduate reading group operating in your field at your university? There is quite a good one here in my field; we meet every fortnight and at each meeting somebody gives a short (15-20 minute) paper on their research. Sometimes it's an early draft of a paper they're planning to present at a conference, so the reading group gives them the chance to do a 'test-run'. It's a really relaxed, friendly atmosphere and a very supportive environment if you're not used to giving papers.

Alternatively, if there isn't one, why not start one? It doesn't have to be a big commitment from anyone - you could always just meet up informally for a coffee-table-type discussion if nobody has the time to prepare a short paper - and would hopefully help with the feelings of isolation...