I started my PhD in September, with a real love of my subject and now 7 months later I have no motivation whatsoever.

After completing (and on the whole enjoying) my masters degree, it seemed like a sensible option to continue to study something that I really enjoyed. I've always been a very hard worker and extremely motivated. Over the past four plus months I just don't recognise myself. I'll do anything to avoid working. Whenever I think of picking up a book it makes me feel physically sick.

When I started my PhD (which is in pure maths) I knew I'd have LOTS of reading to do before I could feel I was getting anywhere. My supervisor gave me a list of several books, papers, course notes and left me to it. This did not bother me at the time since I've always been an independent worker, but I realise now that it completely overwhelmed me. Being presented with such a high volume of extremely complex material, with no guidance, no specific direction - where would I start?! The answer was to panic and read small parts of each new thing that my supervisor gave me, make little or no sense of it and move onto the next new thing.

My supervisor went on leave three months into my PhD - not ideal. At about four months I went to see my co-supervisor and completely broke down in front of him. I explained how overwhelmed I felt, how I was doubting my ability to continue. He was (and still is) very supportive - however by this point the stress of making no progress had kicked in, completely knocking my confidence. It still hasn't improved and I'm having a complete mental block.

I feel so frustrated with myself for letting it get to this point. I feel like I'm throwing away a great opportunity - but how do find my motivation again?

I realise I've rambled quite a bit, I think it reflects how I'm feeling at the moment. I can't seem to gather my thoughts and feel completely incapable of making any sound decisions.

The way I see it, I have three options:

1) Quit - which I hate the thought of.

2) Submit an MPhil thesis instead - though if I can find the motivation to write up an MPhil then an end of year continuation report would in theory be no problem.

3) Continue with my PhD - though if I can't motivate myself soon this option may be taken away from me and leave me with only option one.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.