Many thanks to everyone for your replies so far I do really appreciate your help.

I am fully funded so the money side of doing a PhD is not too much of a concern. Also there would not be an opportunity to defer entry so I really have to make a decision quite soon, which is proving difficult as my head is very muddled up at the moment and the matter is further complicated with my long term anxiety issues.

I have been looking for alternative careers, but so far I have not had much luck. Ive considered things such as an academic editor, school teacher and a data analyst to name a few but either I don't really seem to fit the description or they would require significant re-training and relevant work experience.

I am just worried I am going to come out of my PhD with a fantastic, but ultimately useless qualification. Investing this amount of effort into a PhD and then having to go into something I could have done straight from secondary school (e.g. pub/shop work) seems a likely but rather depressing scenario.

I am about to start a PhD but I am seriously considering quitting before I start next month. Until recently I had always wanted to do a PhD and become a lecturer, even though I was fully aware of the competitive career structure and low numbers of permanent academic jobs. I thought I would pursue a few post-docs and then hopefully get a permanent job but the odds seem to be stacked against this. I love my subject but don't think I can cope with dedicating all this time to my PhD and not getting anything at the end of it. I have also had problems with anxiety and depression and I don't think I could cope with the stress of moving from post doc to post doc anyway.

My subject has no real world application (palaeontology) so I'm struggling to see how I could be able to convert my experience as a PhD student to a non academic career and will find myself working in a minimum wage job with no career prospects. I'm also concerned my PhD will only put employers off as I would be deemed overqualified or too specialised for a normal job.

It had been my dream to a PhD in this subject but I don't know if I should count my losses and try to do something else now or follow my dream even though it will get me nowhere.

Sorry for the long post but any advice would be really appreciated.