Hi elfie, Glad you're back posting. I'm going to answer you to the best of my understanding. More experienced and knowledgeable dber's will fill in anything that I'm missing or in error about.
If a MLCer's journey is interrupted as such that they don't deal with the internal issues, at some point there will be no denying that return trip to the tunnel. They will eventually enter the tunnel and usually with a vengeance.
It is my understanding they do start back at zero because the issues weren't dealt with the first time.
How long it takes is anybody's guess as it would be up to the MLCer how fast he/she processes through the issues at hand when and if they start to deal with them. That probably has to do with the severity of the issues as well.
An om/ow will keep the MLCer from looking within so the processing doesn't start in earnest while in replay.
Unfortunately, not all 'awaken' and stay stuck never completing their journey because they will have not taken a look within and realize that was the source of their unhappiness.
