However does the bomb drop always come at the beginning of replay or can this stage already be well and truly entered into? Does replay begin when the affair is still emotional or only after it becomes physical? Can the affair continue into the depression and withdrawal stages or does the affair partner have to be out of the picture completely? Please can someone explain how you can tell if the acceptance stage has started and they are going back into the tunnel to close the doors on the various stages? Do they go back as far as replay and how many times do they go back to each stage?
First you would be better off starting your own thread.
BD normally comes about 1/2 way to a 2/3 of the way through REPLAY. That being said don't get the idea that the TIME will go fast after BD. We could be talking about many, many years.
Normally it is taught here that as long as their is an affair partner they are still in REPLAY.
As far as Acceptance goes, I really only know what I have read and observed on the boards. You may not know when they are in acceptance, and yes they go back through all the stages. Best to forget all the stages and not worry about them. Stages are best viewed looking in retrospect after the crisis is completely over. Other than that it is very likely that you will be wrong about anything you are viewing. When Jim Conway wrote the stages I believe he was talking very much in generalities and depending on each crisis you may see other scripts or cycles within each crisis.
Describing the crisis as a slinky works best for me. You go round and round and end up in almost the same place.
