The danger of not being or having gone very far down the scale is that it makes it easy to rationalize a continuance of what we were already doing, thereby perpetuating a longer stay in the neighborhoods of frustration, exhaustion, despair, difficulty, bewilderment and terror.  At best, we get a situational band-aid.

The danger of being or having gone far down the scale is the risk of getting stuck in a morass of self-pity so great that seeing any hope of a better life becomes impossible.

The grace in either is that our only hope for recovery from these experiences is assistance from God.