Has anyone ever quit their PhD after passing their viva? I was handed a long list of corrections and initially nearly a year to do them, after a viva which on the face of it seemed to go well. Now I have less than 2 months remaining to complete the corrections, am working full time and expecting a child in 3 months. I have completed some of the corrections but nowhere near all. I have no energy or interest left and utterly despise the perpetual 'knot-in-the-stomach' feeling which academia wants you to internalise and just 'power through'. I have no interest in asking for any sort of extension to my corrections or whatever.
I am basically emotionally and spiritually done with this PhD and desperate to leave it behind. I have no remaining interest in my research whatsoever, and if I am being honest, never really have had. Someone asked me a simple question at work today, 'oh what was your PhD on?'.... and I went into a hour-long inner sulk.
I am not sure what I want from this post... advice? Someone to validate my feeling that I should quit? Or just to vent... sorry.

Hi, I hadn't seen this before, otherwise I'd have replied sooner. I haven't been in this situation with the major corrections. But I certainly have been in a position where my thesis meant basically nothing to me and when I had to talk about it I had inner sulks. I don't know if you want advice, or maybe just venting helped. I hope you get it done and submitted. Once it's done it's done - once and for all. You'll be totally free to focus on the things in your life that interest and energise you. I don't think you should quit by the way :D

Hi
I can absolutely 100% relate to how you feel, minus expecting a baby in 3 months (Congratulations by the way). I also passed with major corrections in June and have barely looked at my thesis since. Every time I think about it, I just want to burn it. I have so much to do and want it finished, I don't want to quit at this stage but I am so done with it, the thought of being neck deep in my research again just completely fills me with dread.
I am in a crap, meaningless full time job which I took to help me have the time to finish my thesis and get to the viva and because it is still not finished, I'm still working the crap and meaningless job which you'd think would motivate me to work on my thesis but it just depresses me even further.

I don't know the answer, I don't have anything positive to say other than, you are really not alone in the way you feel. My advice would be, work on it as much as you can until the deadline and then submit whatever you have done. If it's still not good enough, then by the time you find that out you will have a brand new baby and the PhD will be at the bottom of your list of priorities but you have nothing to lose by putting all your effort into it until then.

Good luck :)

I was in a similar situation not that long ago. After my viva I was giving minor corrections, although the list was quite substantial. Not long after the viva was over I started feeling deflated - I looked over my list of corrections and they seemed to go on forever, and for some of them I had no idea how I was going to tackle the changes asked for. I remember vividly that knot in the stomach feeling and whenever anyone asked how it was going I just wanted to curl up in a ball and roll away from them. I also started getting a few "what you've still not completed them?" from some people a week after the viva. I don't have any great advice I'm afraid - just know that you're not alone, although it may feel like it, there are others out there who have went through the same thing. Don't feel defeated - if you have made it this far you can get through it. Stick it out, and hand in whatever changes you can manage. If you can, go back to your supervisor and ask for some advice and encouragement.

I got a revise and resubmit without viva in June 2017. Very embarrassed as I am middle aged and was already employed as a senior lecturer. I nearly gave it all up, in fact I started a thread on here. Happily, I did not and passed with no further corrections in May last year. Good luck yo you all.