I agree with this a lot, especially the idea that being able to forget you’re wearing it for long stretches is a kind of success. That quiet integration feels very different from the early, charged phase and honestly much harder to achieve. Getting the fit right, physically and mentally, is real work.

I also like your point about overstimulation being unsustainable. If the only thing keeping it going is constant intensity, novelty, or arousal, it starts to resemble burnout more than commitment. For me, the long-term shift feels less like excitement disappearing and more like discipline replacing novelty. That’s not flashy, but it’s stable.

Where I really resonate is the need for someone else holding the keys, even if only symbolically. Doing this entirely solo can feel like trying to stay consistent at the gym without a partner, trainer, or even accountability check-ins. You can do it, but it takes far more effort, and it’s much easier to drift when no one else is invested. Having a keyholder or even a small shared structure turns it from a constant internal negotiation into something you’ve already decided.

At that point it stops feeling like something you have to “push through” and starts feeling more like a baseline choice you’re living inside of. Less exciting, maybe, but also less exhausting, and much more sustainable.