Hi,

I'm in my second year of a PhD in the UK. Up until now I've been getting on great with my supervisor, research and everything going great. With my supervisors consent I accepted to do an internship in Japan for six months.

When I arrived I started to feel isolated and very homesick. I thought it would pass and did what I could to get over it. I then found out my father was ill and, although it isn't terminal or anything, it also isn't nice and he told me he'd really like it if I came home. Already being homesick and not in a good frame of mind, that really pushed me over the edge and I couldn't cope. I spoke to my supervisor to see what she thought and she said give it a few weeks. I did that, and it just got worse. I couldn't sleep or work and just wanted to go home. I struggle a lot with anxiety, although I know lots of people can say that.

The internship was unpaid, I'd done 3 months, it had not been productive, my mindset all wrong for my type of work (theoretical physics). No one relied on me and I decided I'd had enough, it wasn't benefitting my work or my health. I emailed my supervisor saying I felt I had to come home. My supervisor said she'd prefer I didn't but that if I did cancel it, here's how I should handle it. I handled it exactly that way.

She is now very angry that I cancelled it and is trying to organise for me to go back and complete the internship two days after I arrived. She says that if I am well enough to do my phd in the UK I am well enough to do it in Tokyo.

I guess I would just like some advice - I have tried to be fair in portraying the situation, am I being unreasonable? How should I handle the situation with my supervisor?