Thank you all for your kind responses. I already feel a little better. I think the main reason I am so upset is not the rejection but the fact that the reviewer thought my paper was so bad that they actually withdrew themselves from the review process. Also the journal I submitted to has a transparent review system, so the reviewer was effectively able to "hide" from transparency by rejecting my paper and then withdrawing themselves. I am therefore not entitled to see their name or their comments. As you mention, this also means I got nothing constructive from the process.

Hi all, I am a final year PhD student in life sciences. I submitted an article based on my phd research to a journal for which I had been invited to contributed to a research topic from a conference I attended. I received an email today saying one reviewer had withdrawn from the review process because they felt my article should be rejected on the grounds that no changes I make would improve the article. I was wondering if anyone else has had this experience? I feel extremely de-motivated as the paper makes up a large chunk of my thesis. I feel sick even to look at my thesis now and I am sure I will not pass my PhD if the reviewer thinks my work is not even worthy of corrections. I am so close to submitting but I don't see any point in carrying on now. My supervisors are hands off and do not really let me know when my work is not good enough therefore I cannot even rely on them to help me improve. I suffer mental health problems and feel extremely depressed following this rejection. Thanks for reading, any advice would be hugely appreciated.