Yes it does take years. And generally humans learn the hard way..We need to experience things by ourselves to prove/learn them.
But is a shame bc all of us, if we only knew how our lifes would end up being if we didn't deal with what we had at that time, I believe all of us will have donde 180° changes in our lifes in order to have a better pronostic (and life)
But maybe we have to live the Hell and touch the deepest in order to realize how serious is what we have and change our lifes for good.