My gap was six weeks and I still felt like a fraud coming back

Started 8 October 2025 · 16 replies · 148 hearts · read 1.9k times

Gwen DAberystwyth, UK · 8 October 2025

9 months ago

My gap was six weeks and I still felt like a fraud coming back — putting it in its own thread so it does not get lost in the check-in.

I have been reading here for a few weeks and have not posted, so this is me posting.

I have written down what has actually happened, in order, because I find that more useful than my summary of it.

My prescriber has been fine, genuinely. The problem is that I get nine minutes twice a year and there is no version of nine minutes that covers this.

Thanks all. Genuinely.

OttilieCheshire, UK

Can I gently push back on one thing? Not the substance, just the framing — you have written twice that you should be coping better. Who told you that?

InêsPorto, PT

My pharmacist was more use than anyone. Ten minutes at the counter, no appointment, no charge.

12me too 5

BobbieRochdale, UK

the reply above said something I want to sit with for a second.

No advice, just recognition. That sounds exhausting and I am sorry you are in it.

BenediktFacilitatorVienna, Austria

I will leave this open for a few more days and then add it to the circle's resources, because the answers here are better than anything I would have written.

AurelBucharest, RO

It got worse before it got better for me, which I wish someone had said. About ten days of worse.

11me too 2

ZoraSarajevo, BA

What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

For what it is worth, the trial data on this is thinner than the confidence of the internet would suggest. Worth knowing when you read the posts.

NikolaiSofia, BG

I am about four months behind you and I have been dreading exactly this, so thank you for writing it down before I got there.

MableBolton, UK

Yes to the burping. It is real, it is unbeautiful, and it does settle.

Gwen DAberystwyth, UK

I did exactly the same and felt terrible about it. You have not done anything wrong.

OttilieCheshire, UK

#10

Building on what the reply above wrote rather than answering the original question.

Practical, boring answer: write the three questions down before you go in. I have never once remembered them otherwise.

InêsPorto, PT

#11

What the reply above described happened to me too, in a slightly different order.

The phrase that unlocked my appointment was asking what specifically she wanted me to watch for. It moved us from reassurance to a plan in about thirty seconds.

BobbieRochdale, UK

#12

Different experience here, for balance. Mine did not improve and in the end I stopped, and that was the right call for me. Both outcomes exist.

NerysRhyl, UK

#13

I keep a two-line diary and it is the only reason I could answer this question about myself. Worth starting even now.

AurelBucharest, RO

#14

Have you got anyone who can be with you when you do it? It made an enormous difference to me and I felt silly asking.

8me too 4

BenediktFacilitatorVienna, Austria

#15

Before anyone offers a remedy: what has been described here is on the list of things that need a clinician today rather than a thread. I am going to be firm about that, kindly.

NikolaiSofia, BG

#16

The thing that changed it for me was going slower, agreed with my prescriber. I am not suggesting you do that. I am saying the conversation exists.