How I budget for this on a graduate salary

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

the opening post — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

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

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.

Reading the reply above, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

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.

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

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

Reading the reply above, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

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

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?

Two things that helped me, neither of them clever: small amounts more often, and drinking a lot more than felt necessary.

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

Yes. All of this. I had the same in my third month and I remember thinking there was something specifically wrong with me, which there was not.

Mine lasted about seven weeks and then lifted over a few days. I cannot tell you why. I can tell you it lifted.

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

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.

What helped was lowering my own expectations of the week rather than trying to hold the week together.