So as for the conspirary: for the first 6 weeks I had no desk to work at, I worked pretty much at home but after 2 months of holidays it didn’t exactly feel like I’d started work; our floor is divided into two by a wall – the quiet half and the not-so-quiet half – I’m in the quiet half, and I mean really quiet; everyone else is older and more experienced than me (29/30 with Masters/RA experience); my closest friend quit after 3 months and I haven’t really clicked with anyone else; one of my supervisors is real moody, another is rubbish and doesn’t do stuff when I ask; so far my experiments haven't worked and it takes me yonks to do anything.

Now for me: I don’t want to do any of the lab work now – it scares me/doesn’t interest me; I lose motivation, stay at home surfing the net/playing games/watching BBC News 24, then feel guilty for not going in and so don’t want to face the music and don’t go in. I’m sure I’m at least a month behind schedule now and I’ve got no real want to pick up the pace and get on with it. I’ve not done any work for 2 weeks! It makes me feel rubbish and I just want to stop it.
Yet I have nothing else to do – no other career plans, and I spoke to a careers advisor the other day and she said it sounded like I needed structure in my work (as I’ve also read on here) but I just don’t want to do it now.

Before I did my degree, I took two years out and consequently I had total motivation and commitment when doing my course; I got a 1st and new why I was doing it. Now I have no idea why I’m doing this and hence have no drive. I’m thinking of either taking a suspension or leaving and going to see what else I can do/find out if a PhD. is really what I want or need. However, then I feel like I’ve wasted 6 months work, my supervisor’s time and might not be able to walk back into a funded Ph.D. in the future – I know how extrememly luck I am to have done so. Still, that doesn’t mean I should do it. I still love science, and like my research topic and could talk about it for hours, but I am going crazy thinking about all of this and it’s making me miserable. Plus I feel like a moaning idiot for continually talking about it with my friends. Has anyone ever left a PhD and then successfully taken up another at a later date? Advice would be appreciated.
End of rant.

Okay, so current problems are
1. no-one to talk to in the lab/write-up area
2. nasty supervisors (or supervisors not living up to your expectations)
3. experiments take ages, and when you finally get to try them they don't work
4. no motivation to do lab work ("it scares me/doesn’t interest me")

2. is unlikely to change, 1. and 3. might change, might not. So if you're prepared to put up with these as potential 'problems for the duration' then I think your main problem is not knowing why you're doing a PhD. As an undergrad, I wanted to do a PhD because I felt I had only scratched the surface of a particular research area (in an undergraduate project) and wanted to go deeper - not because I actually enjoyed the experimental work, but out of some kind of commitment to the project - obsessive curiosity? I never really liked practical work - it scares me too, and I've been discouraged because it takes so much work to get one little result. I think I'm just not very good at it (but definitely don't want to be a theoretician), which is why I don't intend to carry on in academia when I finish my PhD.
The reason I'm trying to finish though is that I know I DO STILL WANT A PhD, if not for the same reason I started out with.

You said "I still love science, and like my research topic" - so it's a matter of deciding whether you can put up with all of the problems to stay involved in the research that you 'like' (on some level).
Three (potentially more) years is a long time - I decided to put up with problems similar to yours, but I'm not sure it was a wise decision.

I think you should quit now and stop wasting everyone's time including your own. Sorry if that sounds harsh, it appears that you have no interest in, or apptitude for, doing a PhD, which as you've found out is very different from a UG course.

You are blaming everyone and everything except your own inability to get stuck in. As Sue says, this IS what a PhD is like - and I think that even if all this was to magically change be solved, you'd find something else that wasnt quite right and stopped you working.

Quit now and give someone else a chance to take your place and go and get a job that provides the structure you need.

Talk to head of your grad schoool. That may help.

But I think there are certain areas of research that can only be carried out in academia (like mine) - so if bdboy likes the research, a PhD may be the only way to stay involved. That was kinda my point. Maybe (also like me) he/she doesn't like it ENOUGH - or doesn't like all the things that accompany the research (environment etc)...

I think alot of these problems could be solved to if you wanted to solve them. The question is how much do you want to solve them. TBH if you thought that your research area etc was getting a bore then i would be more worried. But the issues you are mentioning are normal phd issues. Communicate with other phd students in your department - your not the only one who feels like this.

I agree with Sue, I'm not sure if I should have stuck with it, I liked the subject, not great at labwork and don't feel I've got much aptitude for research but need to finish now (writing up).I struggled on having lots of days when I couldn't go in. I'm having a "day" today in fact as looked at my chapter 4 data and realised I probably don't have the result I thought which makes me wonder if I could ever finish.
It is unlikely to get better. experiments don't work even for experienced people, although people speed up. Is there an option of an MSc or MPhil over 1-2 years? I would do something fairly drastic now-talk to someone, resolve the problems, maybe by changing course/type of course/giving up if that's right for you.

Thanks all for your responses, it's good to hear other people say what I'm feeling! cc and sue - you've kinda reaffirmed what I think in that if I want to stick it out, as you both seem to have, I ought to know why I'm doing it. Can I ask what's keeping you guys going? Sue, you said it was originally 'obsessive curiosity', is that still the case?

I guess things got easier after the half-way point, knowing that I was closer to finishing than to starting. That said, every now and again (nearly four years in) I still feel like quitting - threatening to not write a thesis. I wouldn't really say I'm obsessively curious now. We had to write a little paragraph when we started about why we wanted to do a PhD - mine makes me cringe now, I was very naive. I just want a sense of completion - I want to finish the minimum that I came here to do, so that I won't feel I've failed (even if I were to pass my viva without having reached MY own goals, I'd feel like I'd failed).

I guess that's the thing - when I started I had a really clear idea of what I wanted to achieve research-wise. These aims were totally over-ambitious, and I've 'compromised' lots, but I'm still trying to ACHIEVE something, otherwise I reckon it's been a complete waste of time (it's not training-for-a-career-in-research for me since I'm not staying in academia). That's what motivates me - this is my ONLY chance to publish something.

bdboy, you sound like me when I'm having a 'hard time'. I can tell you this:
-If you want to, it is something you can learn to deal with. You get over the phase of 'not doing anything and feeling bad about it', eventually. Other such times will come but you can develop ways of getting over with them faster. For me, just the fact that I know that I WILL get over it/that it will come again helps: I recognize what's happening, which lets me be a little less critical of myself when it happens, which helps get over with it faster cause I don't add to the bad feelings all too much!
-This is part of dealing with few structures. Some people don't have problems with this. Others do. That doesn't mean a PhD is not for you. You can learn! Be aware however that it will most likely never be easy.