Hi everyone

I have 2 weeks to submit my PhD and I am not optimistic about finishing. I'm really depressed, and have been for years. I'm currently in counselling and that is helping with my thoughts (before that, I was thinking about suicide and hurting myself all the time). Some days are still bad, and my counsellor has suggested I take a Leave of Absence.

However, I only have 2 weeks to submit and to get a doctors note I will need to see my GP, who doesn't have any appointments this week. By the time I get the note I will only have 10 days to submit. My question is, is this enough time to submit the form and for them to process the request?

I have 10k to write and my supervisor also wants me to rewrite 3 of my chapters. I would like to request 3 months off and submit at the end of September.

Hi everyone

Title is my problem. I didn't want to get to this point.

Firstly, my supervisors: my main supervisor is inexperienced but so lovely. She's been endlessly patient and positive. However this might be part of the problem. I wanted to quit in first year and she persuaded me not to. Things didn't improve and I also talked to her about quitting last year. I wish I had, but she begged me not to and even got the head of department from his office to persuade me. It was quite embarrassing, but I understand why she did it as I am her second doctoral student and she has a lot riding on me.

I didn't want to let her down so I agreed to go part time. I have a job which is nice and I've been working every evening and weekend. But now I'm at my final hard deadline and I still have 10k to write! I don't really understand the material and I don't think I'm capable of producing a thesis to the right standard. My supervisor continues to be positive, but the secondary supervisor has told me she's seriously worried.

I just don't know how I'm going to get it done. I have been miserable throughout this whole process and I don't want to work in academia.

I'm going to write as much as I can but I fear I will fail the viva or maybe be advised to withdraw instead of submit.

Any words of advice would be much appreciated.