My PhD is causing me major stress at the moment.

I'm half way through (18 months) but I don't feel like I've done anywhere near enough work. I've got a lit review and have submitted a 6 page paper to a conference which I've managed to expand to around 12 pages as just general writing to give to my supervisor.

But my main problem is a lack of a clear goal. So far I've just been going from one small goal to the next, without a clear vision of what I aim to achieve - I don't even have a concrete title or research question. Every time I'm asked about it, it changes.

I also lack the confidence to raise these issues with anyone, let alone my supervisor. I hint at it from time-to-time but he usually just says "carry on with what you're currently looking at and we'll come back to this later". But we never do. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy but I find it awkward to explicitly mention things like this because I always worry about what people think of me.

My other problem is just a whole pile of crap in my personal life that's finally caught up on me and in the past few weeks I've been struggling to focus. Combined with me thinking that 18 months from now seems like tomorrow I keep feeling like I want to quit. But if that happened I'd be letting down so many people, not least myself.

Although it seems early, I'm turning my mind towards an extension, which would hopefully give me a chance to sort stuff out. But I'm not sure if I'd be allowed to, the university will be fine with it (they always are), but I'm not sure about the people funding me. Obviously I'll stop getting a stipend but that's not an issue (I've got savings I'm prepared to dip into). The problem (if it is a problem) is that I'm part of a bigger project, and it's that project which lasts 3 years. Does that cause an issue? Or am I allowed to keep going beyond the day of reckoning as it were?

Sorry if this seems a bit rambling. My head is a bit all over the place at the moment.