Hope I do believe the notion of the MLC lasting 5-7 years is probably correct, depending on what you measure from. Replay certainly seems to last 18 months - 2 years+. In my own case, I would see three starting points: A deep and dark depression beginning February 03; serious illness for h and my mother December 03.
a series of minor triggers throughout the next 18 months leading to a radical change in behaviour in July 05, and the bomb in early October 05. So depending on what you count as a starting point, I have been dealing with an increasingly emotionally erratic h for about 4 and three quarter years.
He is still in replay, but I suspect hanging in there because he doesn't want to hit bottom. He is beginning to see the damage he has caused, and trying to build some bridges with children and his mother and friends . . . . Very damaged.
I know that your h saw 9/11 at a definite trigger - if I go back, my h had a huge career disappointment in the autumn of 2001. Your bomb was about 4/5 months earlier than mine?
OK comparisions can be problematic, but there does appear to be a pattern . . .
