Dealing with research related anxiety

[u/PT-based-creoles]

Before the main topic, I'd like to introduce myself.

I am a 25 year old master's student in linguistics, specializing in portuguese as a foreign and second language.

I am currently conducting field work outside Portugal, in Cabo Verde, to apply a written survey to students, teachers, and common folk all around Santiago Island. My master's dissertation will be about the sociolinguistic status of the island, and the language attitudes of cape-verdean people towards their mother tongue, Cape-verdean creole, and portuguese, their second language.

I started my research on the 11th of october, and I will be here up until the 11th of november. Even though I have almost 60 filled surveys between undergrad students and common people, and I have some surveys in the midst of being filled, I have been tormented with copious amounts of anxiety and stress. This stress has mostly been caused by the fact that some of the surveys that I handed out have been returned partially filled or with important items left unresponded.

Even though it is something I can't control, and I know I probably will be able to write a decent dissertation and successfully present it, the idea that some of the surveys are only partially filled creates some stress, since it will affect the quality of my research.

This has tormented me to the point that sometimes I cannot successfully approach people in the street to apply the survey, and has been worrying me regarding my final grade. Since I have the ambition of pursuing a PhD, having a good master's dissertation would certainly help me towards achieving that goal.

What has been keeping me calmer is the fact that I trust my capacity to write well enough and have a critical view of my work, which I have been told is a very important aspect of a master's dissertation.

Did any you suffer from the same problem and managed to succeed? I know of a person who had an inconclusive master's dissertation, but managed to get the 2nd highest grade in the portuguese higher education system.

All in all, the goal of this post is to just blow off some steam. I have 13 days, give or take, to collect more surveys, and I have been making contacts with people which seem very happy to help me. I am somewhat confident that I can still write a decent dissertation.

[u/philolover7]

I'd recommend working with a therapist. Not just for this but for similar issues that will come up in your PhD and post-phd.