I also suspended for three months to deal with my depression. Without a doubt, I would have dropped out of the PhD if I hadn't done that. During suspension, I focused mainly on therapy, as well as getting my sleep, exercise and diet habits back on track. After suspension, I got back to research, got a job as a lecturer while I was writing up the thesis, and have just received word that I have passed the PhD.

It's not that everything became easy once I had improved my mental health - I still had difficulty writing, had major corrections to do because of submitting a rushed thesis, and had a few bad days when it was hard to work. But the difference it made was to my resilience. I became much better at getting through a bad day and trying again the next day, and I was much less paralysed with fear and anxiety. Mental resilience is a really important thing when you are doing a project as long-term, draining and isolating as a PhD. Taking some time to work on that is the best thing you can do in order to succeed in the end.

I think it would be a good idea to approach your university counselling service about this; they may have advice about planning how you approach your supervisor and managing your anxiety about his response and, in any case, feeling sad all the time is something you need to address with them. I also wonder if it would be worth writing down your questions for your supervisor and emailing them to him in advance of your meetings so that you don't feel anxious about formulating them 'in the moment'.

I submitted my corrected thesis in the first week of August, and the university let me know they sent it out to examiners last week. I don't know what to do all day while waiting to hear back. I don't have any teaching until September and I can't focus enough to write something short and thesis-unrelated for publication which was my original plan. Anyone else who had major corrections to do, how did you handle this waiting time? And how long did it last in your case?

Thanks everyone. I just am writing so slowly that I don't know what the quality of the work I submit will be, and I'm scared the examiners will hate it and say it's not good enough. I just want this process to end.

I'm currently finalising my corrections (new chapter and new conclusions) and realising how much more I have to do before I submit the revised thesis next week. My worry is that the new stuff will be so rough around the edges (i.e. too long and rambling) that the examiners will not accept them. I can't find any information in my university guidelines about what happens next if the examiners are unsatisfied with the corrections. Will I get yet more time to make more changes, or will that be it and will I fail?

Thank you, JStanley, your story is very reassuring -- I hope I can follow your example (once I get the report) and finish up quickly. I submitted my thesis in a rush, having run out of time before the deadline and not wanting to ask for an extension, so I feel like my examiners made a fair decision in giving me major corrections and I don't blame them at all. I'm just anxious about celebrating too early and then not getting the degree in the end. I do feel sad that I let myself down at the last hurdle, having rushed the actual writing after putting so much effort into the research, but that's not my examiners' fault.

Thanks a lot, marasp. I still haven't got the examiners' report, so I'm not 100% sure what corrections I need to make, but I suppose I'm just paranoid about celebrating too early in case it goes wrong later. The viva was generally quite positive but I got the sense they liked my argument a lot more than the actual text of the thesis and I don't know if they'll like my writing better at corrections stage.

Hi,

I had my PhD viva yesterday and was told the outcome would be pass with major corrections. The correction they want is an additional chapter describing the practical applications of the research. I have a clear idea of how to write this but I'm worried about what happens afterwards. Is it common for a pass with major corrections to become, basically, an R&R because the examiners don't approve the corrections? I know it's a theoretical possibility but is it likely? I'm swinging between relief at the outcome - I was scared I would fail outright or get R&R - and thinking it's too early to feel relieved. Does it mean anything that the form will say I've passed?