I have been trying to find more information about the ending stages of MLC. Especially the breaking of withdrawal and acceptance stages.
Lance has brought this up on another thread. I think he has a very good point so, I thought I would start a new thread for discussion of the final stages of MLC.
This is Cyrena's reply to Lance...
Originally Posted By: Cyrena
I also noticed (and regretted) how little information seemed to exist about the final stages. In retrospect, however, I think I can understand why. Withdrawal is so internalized that my H barely talked to me during it, and I think he couldn't really remember it well once his depression lifted.
Also, Acceptance probably looks more different in different people than the other stages, because this is when issues are finally being addressed. But these issues vary greatly.
In addition, in those last stages my H was cycling so fast and so dramatically that no plan, emotion, intention, etc, lasted long before it was replaced. In the space of 5 minutes he could say and do a bewildering number of contradictory things. Even into Acceptance he would have regular dips into thinking with his teenaged brain for several months. But he was also in withdrawal from the OW at the time, which no doubt added its own issues.
I don't think you're going to find a "script" for breaking withdrawal and acceptance in the same way you can for the earlier stages. All you can do as an LBS is take care of yourself so that you are prepared to deal with whatever happens.
