Thank you all for your kind advice! The mountain comparison was poetic and really true. Only that in my case, there is no second mountain to climb in view, just a bare idea of where is the direction to find the new mountain to climb :-(.

I am really at a crossroads. As I said, going back to my country is something I would not like. Salaries completely suck there and I am relatively well paid in my PhD. However, I repeat, I do not like academia or becoming a professor, I just like doing research and constantly learning things, and using analytical skills all the time. I am honestly doing the PhD for an industrial research position. At least the ones who detected that the problem was being badly focused where the doctoral advising comittee. My advisor is really dedicated guy. But even he told me "is a tough world. If you dont publish, I will not have arguments to find you more funding" which I find quite reasonable. My funding runs out next year in september (it is a 3 year project).

Sadly, the "do it part time and get support from family" will not work here. I repeat, I am foreigner and in this country I dont speak the local language (the doctoral school is 100% in english), so if I am not funded, it is the end. By the way, I have been unable to do friends in this country for the last 1.5 years, I am alone 100% and I dont like the city were I am living. This also pushes me towards quitting. I also believe myself if I dont get a research related position, or even something that require some analytical skills, I will end frustrated. But it will be even worse if I keep going and then I end with no work on sight at all. I believe the least risky strategy is to quit, but I will let down my advisor and probably will end up forever with the "what if I had given it a harder try?" question.

In the end, there is no easy answers on sight. If I were 25, I wouldnt care staying longer, but I am not 25 anymore. I believe honestly there I will push for a few months to see if I find the mountain again. In any case, my advisor wants to cite the doctoral committee again in 2 months. They said it for the sake that I dont waste 6 months more on possible wrong thing. I dont know.

For the ones that spent 3 years and got into the same thing, I really offer them my sympathy, specially if they have incurred in debt (at least I am 100% debt free). The more I read about things in academia, the more I believe government should try to regulate in some way graduate schools, in some way it can waste a lot of taxpayers money and time and talent from people that in many cases is brilliant. Just some musings.... thanks again to all of you!

Hello to everybody
Thank you for hearing me in advance. I turn to forum for advice, since here people understand well what is to do a PhD. I decided to start my PhD at 29 years old, with the goal of finishing within 3 or maximum 4 years. Due to various problems adapting to the local enviroment (I am a foreigner), my rate of advance was not the best. In any case, after 1.5 years, I had a meeting with my advising committee and basically it was discovered that the actual problem I have been working must be "refocused", which basically means almost starting again. This happened because my advisor, who is very good mentor and does his best, is not an expert in the exact area of the initial problem, he is an expert in the general area. That the problem was badly focused would have been detected in any case, after 1 year, the 6 months delay I am to blame. In any case, I dont want to take 5 - 6 years to do a PhD (my maximum allocated was 4 years) and I believe this setback just simply will take me that to finish, which of course, is common. Besides, there are the usual uncertainities about research, like if things are going to work, funding, acceptance of papers (I only have 1 small publication). I am thinking seriously to quit, being a professor was never my idea, I started the PhD because I would like to land an industrial research position, but I am already 30 and I believe by the time I finish, I will be too "old" for industry >33 and I am worried I end either burned out, waste more time, or get to 35 being unemployable. What do you think, should I quit? thank you again!.

Hello
I have finished my first year as a Ph.D student in a North European university, in some country in northern europe (not nordic). I get good funding and my advisor is a great guy. I would say professionally, everything is just great. However, after 1 year, except for some not so deep attachments with some of my peers, I have been unable to make any friend. The days just go by completely alone, and as I am an international student I dont have family or similar here. I am 100% alone day and night, all the time. I am alone in my office all day, get up, go to my house to be alone. When the weekend comes, I stay alone at my home, go to do shopping alone, and so on. All my days I am by myself. I've tried the typical "join a class, join a group, bla bla", but it has not worked. I don't speak the local language, and in any case, people here in general is very nice but very reserved and keep to themselves. The city where I live is not too exciting too, actually is somewhat boring. I am feeling depressed and terribly guilty, since except for that everything is great. I am stopping caring about everything, and this is really affecting my performance. What should I do? has somebody else coped with something like this before? I would not like to quit, but I know that this situation is not going to improve. I dont know if I want to keep living like this 3 or more years, I feel life is going by and I am missing great things, such as having a partner. Some of my colleagues have been here longer, speak the local language and also have very few friends, and are in a similar (though not that bad) situation. Thank you for listening....