I'm mostly talking to the experienced ferals here

I'm asking because I feel a little "hmph" just now. You might have read my never-shuts-up thread about how I've finally joined a raiding guild with my kitty. Look, I *knew* it was going to be a steep learning curve. I knew I'd be more concerned with learning the fights as a kitty (I've only ever seriously raided on my healing priest) than optmising my dps. I also knew that it's easy to feel good in raid finder where there's almost no mechanics to watch out for in comparison.
And yet... Being at the bottom of the dps meters sucks. It dents my confidence, and that's not a good thing if I want to improve. I LOVE this spec so much. I read like a maniac, and I know I'll just need practice, practice, practice. I'm an intelligent person and I will get there. I'd just like to know when!
I know a fair bit about my spec, but in the middle of a fight it all goes haywire. We were practising Yor'sahj heroic today and I was relieved when I finally cracked the 30k dps-barrier. Yes, really. Ok, so they need me to kill the oozes, I can't stay on the boss. But when anything happens... doesn't go as it should, I fumble and make stupid mistakes. Or if I'm called to battle res someone - it takes me forever to get back up and running again after that.
So, long story short: how long did it take YOU?