I really don't like my supervisor. She constantly seems to want to shout at me for no reason whatsoever. Also, she is always putting me down because of my age practically saying that because I am so young, I do not know anything and should therefore listen to her advice without question. The thing is that her advice is really poor. I proposed several intricate projects on the frontier of the research agenda but she always said I would be overwhelmed and has me now doing something so damn basic. I sense that she doesn't want me to do something she is unable to grasp completely because whenever I propose an idea she instantly shouts me down.... I thought the purpose of a PhD was to explore...

Hello,

My supervisor is giving me a headache. I submitted a draft chapter knowing some weaknesses were present in the paper regarding methodology which I have now amended. However, before these amendments I went to meet my supervisor and she told me that my paper needed major revisions and provided feedback. To my surprise she didn't mention any of the weaknesses I thought the paper had and focused solely on the write up. The thing is, the write up isn't even a problem in my opinion. For example, she said you have used overly technical language! I mean, this is a PhD thesis right? She told me that a non-expert should be able to understand what you are talking about!? Furthermore, she would highlight my tables and say that I should explain the methodology used to obtain these statistics at which point I started to feel that she may have health problems. This is because the methodology section HAS a complete description of how I obtained those statistics. She apparently went through all 40 or 45 pages as pretty much all my paragraphs are annotated with notes saying explain?? Like how can I explain the explanation? What am I supposed to do with this? My other supervisor is on leave till next year. Oh and also, she said that all your references should be from 4* journals whereas most of mine are from 3* and lower ranked journals. My research area is quite a niche and naturally those publications won't be in 4* journals. How do I deal with this? For some reason I would feel bad having a go at her because she thinks she has given me really constructive advice...

Any advice is sincerely appreciated.

Thank you to everyone for replying. My GP has arranged for a blood test today in the afternoon. Let's see what happens...

Hello Everyone,

I am a first-year PhD student (started in October 2016). My first year has gone pretty well so far however recently I have been having some issues and would appreciate any advice. Basically, I told my supervisors that I expect to have results and a first draft of my first chapter by September or October. To achieve this and for other reasons like wanting to finish the course on time I haven't taken any time off the entire year. While I used to take one or more often two days off in the week before June, since mid-June I have taken exactly one complete day off. My diet is very health and I exercise frequently. The problem however is that over the past two weeks or so I have been experiencing pretty serious anxiety/depression (non-suicidal) and stress. My hair is falling out, my stomach remains upset, headaches (I never get these normally), low libido and the inability to focus. My daily routine consists of sleeping 8-12 hours, waking up, performing an hour of fasted cardio or resistance training, eat, research, eat, research, walk 30mins, research, sleep and repeat. I pretty much only have my results section to complete now but I am unable to write a quality piece like the rest of the paper. If I spend a day without working I feel a deep sense of guilt and the thought of not progressing even a bit in a single day makes my heart beat escalate as a PhD is not like an MSc or BSc. It doesn't just end after exams or whatever, I have to write my papers whether that takes 3 years or 5, and I am heavily reliant on my funding (which ends in September 2019). Does anyone have any advice on what I should do?

This is probably going to sound extremely weird and perhaps slightly off-topic but whenever I give a presentation I always imagine I am speaking to the European Parliament. There's something about those large international conferences and meetings that I just adore. I really wish I could at some point in the future live the life of a diplomat or ambassador. I am procrastinating. Back to writing my thesis....

Hahaha! Sorry I am not laughing at your situation but rather I was thinking of posting something similar just last night. I work in an office environment with three other PhD students. While the individual in question is definitely not as hard working as your colleague, I have slowly started to get very irritated by having them around. Whatever discussion we may be having almost always seems to get diverted somehow to them putting forward ridiculous conspiracy theories or just utter rubbish with no facts to back them up. And the thing is that you could walk in to the office and start a conversation about things as diverse as last nights football match to dating and the conversation would almost always get diverted to their ridiculous ideas.

The other thing is that the person is also quite intrusive. I could walk into my office one day and see things on my desk moved about and they even admitted to "checking out" my research. Also, it seems impossible for me to sit in peace and quiet to focus on my research as they're always talking or interrupt my research and guess how? By coming up right behind my back and staring at what I am reading. It pisses me off so much when I can feel the person looking from right above me. The fact that they're not too hygienic and love to make physical contact only makes matters worse.

I don't think moving offices would be an option so for the past week I have been using the campus library which isn't as ideal as having your own office space....

Thank you for your replies :)

This is actually what I was feeling from inside but having my thoughts reinforced by others surely does increase my confidence regarding this matter!