Many of us have been through tremendous amounts of pain and suffering during our time in active addiction or alcoholism. We came to a point when we realized that we were unable to gain control over our drug or alcohol use. This point in our lives, when we were finally ready to surrender, is often described as “rock bottom.” There are no ‘rules’ about hitting rock bottom. Homelessness, poverty, legal troubles, although common in the experiences of many people’s rock bottom, is not necessary. The term “rock bottom” seems to imply that things could not get any worse for us as a result of our addiction and alcoholism. However, from experience, many people realize that this is not entirely true. Rather, rock bottom is the point where we choose to stop digging ourselves deeper into the suffering of our addiction and choose to seek help. Some people have a “physical” rock bottom experience. For them, the unmanageability of their disease manifested itself in external ways. Their rock bottom was easily seen by others as a result of their inability to assert any type of control over their life. For other, the experience with rock bottom was internal. They experienced a spiritual low, often overcome with feelings of hopelessness and misery which seemed inescapable. Each person has a different experience with rock bottom because each person has a different level of suffering they can experience before feeling the need to ask for help. Dr. Peg O’Connor, in a 2014 Psychology Today entitled, “What’s Wrong with Rock Bottom?”, describes rock bottom as a “misery threshold”: “The different ways in which addictions progress make the concept of misery threshold more appealing than rock bottom. In response to some loss of hope, some people cross their misery threshold. As a consequence, they may become willing to transform themselves. Others can suffer a significant loss of hope and color in their lives but still stay somewhere in the comfort zone of their misery threshold. Others will need to feel total and complete misery and only then will they consider a different course of action.” Our ability to recover isn’t dependent on anyone else’s experience with rock bottom. It is entirely personal, and comes when we decide to stop fighting and seek help. Cocaine Anonymous, a 12-Step recovery fellowship, explains “Maybe some of us were worse off than you; maybe some of us didn’t hit as low a bottom as you. Still the fact remains that those of us who are recovering have come to believe that a Higher Power of our own understanding can restore us to sanity. There is a solution; we can recover from addiction. One day at a time, it is possible to live a life filled with hope, faith and courage.”
Hope, faith, and courage can be the next chapter of your story. You can begin building a better life through recovery by seeking help today. Oceanfront Recovery, a treatment center in Orange County, California, offers Residential Treatment in a beautiful beachfront environment. For more information about treatment options, please call today: (877) 279-1777
