To quit my PhD

[RockChicken1]

I'm just over two years in and I have been feeling like this for the last 6 months. I have no motivation whatsoever right now and I'm stuck in a cycle of guilt and apathy. It's so frustrating because I've never felt like this before, I worked really hard on my first degree and my masters and got good results. I just feel stupid and lazy. It's even harder to motivate myself as I know what I want to do career wise now and I don't need a PhD to do it. A few people I have sp

I quit mine.

It was humanities and the job market isn't good, plus I'm now going into a different profession.

There is nothing like the isolation, fear, apathy, self loathing cycle. I am still on heavy anti anxieties.

I remember feeling the same in my second year. The write up can be quick if you get going enough. I had the advantage of being pg so needed to write up before giving birth. I was quite thankful in the end as meant I stopped experimenting at the minimum point and wrote up a lot quicker than I would have done otherwise.

Did one post-doc before defecting to industry

I felt like that throughout my phd. It was the most miserable phase of my adult life, by a very long way, and sometimes even now I resent having spent my early 20s in a crucible of misery and angst. The only reason I didn't stop was because I worried I'd feel a failure about that for the rest of my life.

In retrospect I am glad I dragged on to the bitter (very bitter) end as after going off and doing other things I did end up back in academia, which I couldn't have done otherwise. And also I don't have to beat myself up for not having finished.

But really, if you know what you want to do and it doesn't take a phd and you could convert it to an MPhil at this point - I'd say that's well worth considering. I do know too many people who spent years and years not finishing. And now have up to 8 year gaps on their C.V.s and no phd to show for it. Whereas loads of people do give up Ph.D.s at all stages, it's not unusual and often does make sense.

Don't give up rock chicken. Everyone gets the downers when the data isn't coming in as you expect and you're twiddling your thumbs.

It happens in real life too, work can be frustrating and disheartening, so don't give up thinking far away hills are green.

Use this time to read around and plan your write up.
Start writing up your introduction, or do a poster, attend a conference or two, or ask a fellow researcher can you shadow her or him in the lab, as your results aren't in yet and you're looking for something to do.

Tutor some students? I did a lot of tutoring and teaching when my experiments were being set up and I had to wait for the plants to grow etc.. I taught experimental protocol and statistical analysis. It kept me active when I was waiting for the growing season to come round again.

I give you permission to give up on a postdoc though!