an analogy

Doing research is kind of like an abusive relationship. Mind you I have never been in an abusive relationship, but I still think they are similar. Let me tell you why. One moment you are thinking yes this is going to work when your partner (or study) is being reasonable, then before you know it WHAM - something you just didn't expect comes out of the blue to totally ruin everything (say consent forms not being returned, an IRB coming back with a million changes many of which have already been approved, another delay in the study). You are frustrated, but you feel like you need to stick it out, you can't just give up this is your life. Plus you don't know who you can really talk to about the whole thing, I mean who would really understand what is really going on. The cycle continues and I can assume in this case it will until I either die, or things finally work out! This has been an incredibly frustrating process and I can't wait until the abuse of my first study is OVER.