Braveheart, If my memory serves me correctly, the stages were first written by James Conway many years ago. Jim Conway wrote about them because they were the stages that he experienced when he went through his own crisis. Jim's description of the stages was very easy to understand and follow.
The stages are actually modeled after the grieving process, with the one exception of replay. Timelines do not exist when it comes to the process because everyone moves/heals at a different pace. How a person reacts in crisis is very different from the next person in crisis. There is no set steps involved in the crisis. An individual can be in 1 or more stages at once, i.e., exhibiting anger one minute then happy as a clam and back into anger again. Replay, depression and withdrawal can all be played out at the same time. Again, they do not do step 1, then step 2 and then step 3. They are like pin balls bouncing around and off the walls. Why? Because they are operating on emotions and not thinking rationally. Emotions and depression fuel the crisis and it takes a very long time for things to settle down for them, just as it does for someone grieving for a lost loved one. No two people, situations or timelines are alike...each is different in one way or another.
I read Jim's book and the book that his late wife, Sally, wrote years ago. Both were excellent and very much spot on with how a crisis evolves. Reading their books is where my journey began w/understanding the crisis.
HB's postings are her own interpretation of the stages. She took what Jim had written and then used it to create her own postings, sharing what she had witnessed w/her own h in crisis. The timelines that she addressed in her postings were the timelines that she was able to narrow down w/her own h's crisis.
With that being said, my advice is this, read the stages, but do not put a lot of stock in them when it comes to them being step by step and I definitely do not put a lot of faith in the timelines because there are entirely too many variables that can change everything in a New York minute.
Sit quietly, the answers will reveal themselves when you least expect them to. The past is gone, the present is a gift and you need to focus on today, allow the future to reveal itself when it is ready.
