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“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
I heard the psychiatrist Dr. K talk about antidepressants on his HealthyGamerGG podcast.
Their side effects start within days. The benefits take two to four weeks, so some patients quit before the drug ever works.
On her first night with a sleep apnea mask, the mathematician Tanya Khovanova wanted to quit too.
For years she woke up tired. A test counted 37 breathing stops an hour.
The mask gave her headaches. It kept her on her back and smelled of plastic.
Her breathing stops fell to 1 an hour. A month later she started dreaming again.
Quitting sugar also hurts before it helps.
The author Debra Parmley caught herself in the kitchen with a soup spoon, eyeing the brown sugar.
A headache ran from the back of her neck over the top of her head. She felt like flinging plates at people’s heads.
She emptied each open container into the trash so she couldn’t dig it back out.
About six weeks in, carrots and strawberries tasted sweet again.
Since the side effects come first, the start of anything good can feel like a mistake.
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What could you keep doing through the first hard weeks?
