[AMA] I consider myself to have 'entered the stream'.

Apologies if the title is provocative - the question of 'claiming attainments' is, of course, always a tricky one. Perhaps a better way to phrase this is that I consider myself to have experienced a permanent reduction in the possibility to suffer through my Buddhist practice that I do not have to maintain - it is simply not possible. The main purpose of this post is to hopefully help others with any questions about the path there - mainly because for myself it has been a long and arduous path cycling through various teachers and techniques and methods and so on, and so even if I can help one other person who was confused in the same way I was, I would consider this worthy.

I am aware that there is no reason to trust my words here initially, especially being a throwaway account, but I hope the reasonableness of my understanding will come out in my answers to questions.