I never did go beyond paroxysmal, but I was headed in the wrong direction pretty rapidly by the time I got my first ablation. I won't go into it all, but I was really worried and feeling some weird effects, mostly due to the increasing medication to keep my heart rate down while I was fibrillating, which was increasingly often. I was oh-so-fortunate that my EP agreed to put me in line when he did, and that I got my second ablation only a few months later.
From what I can understand, the second stage means at least two or more walls of the left atrium have rogue cell aggregations, whereas paroxysmal means only one spot is affected, and it's 90% probable, across patients, to be found only in the pulmonary vein ostia (their mouths). So that's where most EPs start, but they 'should' map out the entire atrium while their in their to make sure they're not wasting a surgery and requiring you to undergo another (slightly) risky surgery in the future.
If the ablation works, the scarring prevents the impulses from crossing out into the open atrial endothelium, the cells lining the walls, and that means no more AF. If there's no AF, there's no 'self-conversion' or cardioversion in an ER necessary. So, no, I don't convert on my own. There's no fibrillation if the ablation gets the right place.