r/PhD•
Wrong-Yam-9752

Experiences with Leave of Absences during PhD

Seeking advice-personal

I'm nearing the end of my 2nd year of my PhD (in Australia) in music psychology, with only about 2.5 months until my third year starts and about 1.75 years left. I was thinking of taking LOA through the summer term (2 months off) because in the past 2 years, I've had my progress stall so much and a lot of mental health problems arise from the large amount of setbacks that have happened. I found out they were due to two things, my undiagnosed ADHD (now diagnosed and medicated) which made me try to rush though things/feedback to get more done, only for it to not meet standards, AND unclear feedback from my supervisor which left me going in aimless circles for 2-3 months usually.

At the moment, I am pretty burnt out, my mental state is really bad so I was thinking of using the 2 months off to reconnect with why im doing a PhD as well as use the time to take a short break and re-engage with my area because I went to a conference recently and have been super inspired to reconnect with my phd topic. I know i enjoy my PhD but its also difficult coming to terms that I might not be able to graduate having achieved what I hoped to achieve in this candidature due to all the issues that have come up.

Does anyone else have any experiences or tips with leave that might be good to consider?

Posted Dec 1, 2025, 3:59 AM UTC

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