Mind

Falling down

The Twelve Stages of Decline

—

by

Olaf
in

If you are suffering from mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, stress, or low self-esteem, you may be unaware of how your condition has developed and worsened over time. You may also feel hopeless or helpless to change or improve your situation.

But what if I told you that there is a way to recognize and reverse the process of decline that has led you to your current state of mind? A way that can help you identify and understand the causes and consequences of your mental health problems, and provide you with a roadmap and direction for your recovery and growth?

That way is the Twelve Stages of Decline, a model of emotional illness that was developed by Grow, a community-based mental health organization that offers a 12-step program of recovery and growth for people who want to improve their emotional wellbeing and cope with life’s challenges.

The Twelve Stages of Decline are:

  1. We placed too much importance on ourselves and our feelings.
  2. We grew inattentive to the presence of goodness and natural order in our lives OR We grew inattentive to God’s presence and natural order in our lives.
  3. We let competitive motives, in our dealings with others, prevail over our common personal welfare.
  4. We expressed or suppressed certain feelings against the better judgment of conscience or sound advice.
  5. We began thinking in isolation from others, following feelings and imagination instead of reason.
  6. We neglected the care and control of our bodies.
  7. We avoided recognizing our personal decline and shrank from the task of changing.
  8. We systematically denied the real nature of our unhealthy conduct creating imaginary scenarios to justify it.
  9. We became prey to obsessions, delusions and hallucinations.
  10. We practised irrational habits, under elated feelings of irresponsibility or despairing feelings of inability or compulsion.
  11. We refused to listen to the voice of reason offered by friends, family and professionals, and rejected all offers of help.
  12. We lost all insight into our condition.

These stages describe how emotional illness begins with self-centredness and ends with loss of insight, and how each stage leads to the next one in a downward spiral. By becoming aware of these stages, you can learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of your mental health problems, and understand how they affect your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. You can learn to reverse these stages, and move towards recovery and growth, in a following article.