GIFT OF DENIAL - confronting reality is what members of AA means "hitting
bottom":
"He can only be defeated by an attitude of intolerance or belligerent
denial." (BB appendixii, 1st edition)
Denial can be a special gift of grace. Denial does not asked us to address
anything until we have the tools. When we have the tools, it breaks down.
When that happens, the denial turns to dishonesty, if we try to avoid it.
Then, it demands our attention.
If surrender is the act of "letting go," the experience of conversion can be
understood as the hinge on which that act swings-it is the turning point,
the turning from "denial" as a way of seeing things to acceptance of the
reality revealed in surrender. The self-centeredness that undermines
spirituality is rooted in a self-deception that reflects a false
relationship with reality, and that false relationship begins with distorted
seeing, with some kind of false understanding about the nature of reality
and our relationship with it. Breaking through that denial and confronting
reality is what members of Alcoholics Anonymous mean by "hitting bottom."