Can you stomach a lost decade?

Lots of fear and volatility.

This makes me think about the people 20+ years ago that had to watch their portfolios shrink to diminutive values, and stay that way for years and years. Imagine you'll be 3 years, 5 years, 10 years older, and all the money you stash away again and again into your portfolio barely grows, if at all.. you can only "buy the dip" so many times.

I'm sure many disciplined investors (more disciplined than you or I) gave up during this seemingly hopeless period.

People always talk about the risk/reward relationship when investing, but no one thinks about the reality of risk since the younger generations haven't experienced it.

Can you stomach a prolonged downturn?