Lonely

I am really getting stuck into my PhD, and this has made me realise how lonely it can be as a part-time distance student.

I have so many questions at the moment, and my husband is lovely and supportive (he brings me tubs of Ben and Jerrys!) But he will be the first to admit he can’t help me. My supervisor is fab when I see her but I am conscious she is very busy and so can take weeks to reply to an email. I must admit I have bombarded her with emails lately, possibly the reason why she is ignoring me!

It dawned on me to contact an old friend who studied on the same MA course as me. She is also undertaking a PhD, albeit in Australia, but her second supervisor is at Sheffield Uni. Chatting to Cassie has helped lots, so much so we decided to set up a Facebook group for other people from our course that have gone on to do a PhD.

I have put lots of questions on the group’s wall, hope they don’t mind!

Some days I am so excited about my research, and other days (like today) when I’m say with a demanding 3 month old baby, I feel completely overwhelmed and lonely.

Any tips to get through this phase?