Thank you Dunni.
I am at the coding stage and it's like having teeth pulled. I was once, so at one with my data and I treasured every word of the 55 one hour long transcripts. Now that I'm coding, looking for themes, I'm not as interested anymore. I do take breaks, far far far too many and I read some literature or I trawl the net for who's doing what and saying what on the subject. Then I find the day has passed and I myself have made little in the way of progress. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll get back to the job at hand. Thank you for your great encouragement.

Yes, I feel like you too at times. I don't want to work as a researcher or a lecturer either. I just want to get through this as I'm not a giver-upper and I do feel morally obliged to my research participants for their input. Yes it is draining.

I began my PhD early in 2007 having finished a Masters and some research work at my university. I was very much in the zone then and got off to a brilliant start. I worked like the clappers for the first few years until mid-2009 when personal circumstances in my life took over and I had to take a break. This was after an exhaustive year of fieldwork, data collection and transcription. Previous to that I had the bones of a literature review and a decent enough methodology chapter.
I was to resume my PhD early this year and to date have nothing very much to show for my time. Again, my personal life and circumstances has had a lot to do with that. I sought counselling and it did help quite a bit. I have made some strides in mastering NVivo and I am trying my best to code my data. The problem is though, that I seem to have lost my interest in it. I feel terribly detached from it all. I feel so guilty that I am not making more progress. I find it so hard to face it each day. I find it so difficult to apply myself to it and find I can so easily wander off. That is how I came by this forum. I work from home, as I've always done but I would really love to be in contact with others in a similar position, or ideally anyone who has been there and got through it. Thanking you in advance, whoever you are.....