I have just come across this post and it is the only thing I am holding on to that is giving me hope.

I recently resubmitted my PhD after 18 months of revise and resubmit. I had my viva and the outcome was to revise and resubmit without further oral examination required. I guess what it meant for me was that it had failed. My supervisor wasn't equipped to properly advise me on my topic, and my external examiners registered that and basically propelled me to pursue my topic according to their knowledge of the field, and given the examiners and my supervisor come from radically different perspectives, it made sense. Nonetheless, I felt I had somehow wasted those 4 years of being guided by my supervisor and instead then had to totally shift it up and redo it all again from a different line of inquiry. I fell into a really low mode then after the viva, feelings of inadequacy, not feeling equipped enough, feeling flat out dumb whilst also being so radically exposed. In any case, I made it clear that I would not give up and I needed support for my mental health just to fathom up the energy to go on forward. Now I've re-submitted, they have it now in their hands (I re-submitted just over 2 weeks ago). No clue what will happen as it's all up in the air. I radically restructured it and took on the majority of their comments on board, some I simply couldn't have due to time limitations, and I wonder what I'll do if it's just insufficient. I feel bad because I've had to leave so much of my supervisor's guidance out and radically re-enter a new field, because of the examiner's prompting me to do so.

I'm super anxious, I'm worried and I really think, after 6 1/2 years, what will I do if they fail me? I'd feel so worthless. I can't bring myself to open up about it to anyone because I'm so ashamed. You post really resonated with me and I hope there will be a positive outcome. Does anyone know if it happens often that they request further corrections after resubmission? I just so so so don't want them to fail me. It was an ERC funded project, and so I hope that that may help out a bit - but I'm just so anxious every time I think about it!