Well I suppose the length of time would be up to you. As soon as you decide that you've had enough of hell you can repent and enter into heaven. That's not so fearful.
That's not true at all and it shows a typical Western mentality regarding what salvation is all about.
In the West, the idea of "being saved" is that you "repent" (say some sort of prayer of accepting Jesus or something the like) and then you are issued your "get into heaven free card." It is the judicial idea of heaven being a great law court and all you have to do to be forgiven is to say "Well, yes, I'm sorry I did what I did."
Salvation is not that way at all. Salvation is a journey and a change. In the Eastern Christian faith, this is known as "theosis" or becoming gods. St. Athanasius said "God became man so that man might become god." That was the original purpose in the Garden and it still is now.
Therefore, you don't just experience the torment of your sins, yell out, "Hey, I'm sorry already!" and God decides to let you go. That isn't how it works. The work of being transformed begins immediately after baptism and continues on into eternity. Those who cooperate with God's grace and Holy Spirit through prayers, fasting, receiving the Sacraments, etc., are slowly changed into the likeness of Christ. It is a true ontological change which takes place in the deepest parts of the person.
Now....let's contrast this to a man who just recently died - Hugh Hefner. the ontological reality of Mr. Hefner is that he was a fornicator. A man whose life was about fornication. That was his being. No amount of begging, pleading, saying "I'm sorry" will instantly change that any more than one single dose of medicine will cure a very stubborn and deeply set infection. The fire of God's love begins to burn away and purify depths of depravity within such a soul - but only when that soul gives up its rebellion and turns to God in submission. Then the work of God to heal that soul can begin.
Mr. Hefner may very well be sitting in the presence of God suffering but not as of yet turning from his clinging to the desire to fornicate, which was the god of his life. No one understands how it works, but there must come a moment when the soul realizes that it is non-existent without God, that it is a nothing, and the shock of that begins to turn the soul to "face the music," so to speak. This is the thought of many of the mystics and great visionaries such as Julian of Norwich, St. Isaac the Syrian, and Sergius Bulgakov.
If any of us were to experience the full depth of torment it is to be cleansed of our ontological filth, to sorrow over our sins in this life, and to feel the love of God as a chastening fire, we would probably run from street corner to street corner begging people to turn to Christ to be changed and healed of their love of sin. Your making light of it shows that you know nothing of deep sorrow for sin and the intense pain that it causes.
