What exactly is 'hitting bottom'
Member
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 425
This is a really good question & hitting rock bottom is so different for everybody. It can include financial, emotional, relationships, health etc etc... My rock bottom to be honest was a real eyeopener & I wouldn't change it for the world. I stopped instantly & to be honest I glad it happened as I probably wouldn't be here today. In some cases rock bottom can be a good thing as long as we act on it..
Guest
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 1,305
This: I felt anxious when not drinking and anxious while drinking. Well, anxious is too pleasant of a description. It was a sense of impending doom.
And this: I went to work every day and did very well but I was exhausted from keeping up appearances that everything was okay.
And this: I went to work every day and did very well but I was exhausted from keeping up appearances that everything was okay.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
it's the point at which our denial, resistance, false promises, negotiations, efforts to be 'normal' and rationale for our continued madness are smashed apart on the hard-edged reality of conditions in our lives that we can no longer pretend are not leading us down a path of misery, despair and early death.
that point is different for us all.
that point is different for us all.
Sobriety is Traditional
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Orcas Island, Washington
Posts: 9,067
Originally Posted by FreeOwl 
that's still rock bottom. it's just YOUR rock bottom.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
I understand. But what I'm pointing out is that we all have our own 'bottom'.
Along the way, conditions worsen. I suppose the only true 'bottom' is death. If you're not dead yet, you can choose to fall further, or turn around and climb back up.
You hit your bottom because conditions got to the point that it grabbed your attention sufficiently to lead you to choose to get off the downward ride when you did.
(not trying to argue here, just clarify the way I view it.
)
Along the way, conditions worsen. I suppose the only true 'bottom' is death. If you're not dead yet, you can choose to fall further, or turn around and climb back up.
You hit your bottom because conditions got to the point that it grabbed your attention sufficiently to lead you to choose to get off the downward ride when you did.
(not trying to argue here, just clarify the way I view it.
)
Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 10,912
I don't know what it is for me or if I ever had one. The negative consequences of my drinking did not progress in a linear fashion, I had many local ups and downs. I did not quit in the period that I perceived, and still consider in retrospect, my worst. In fact, when I finally decided to give up alcohol for good, it was in one of my better periods and I have not relapsed since, so I tend to think this term is not too meaningful for me personally. But it is for many. Whatever helps and works!
Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Baton Rouge, La.
Posts: 15,238
I'll share my experience on hitting my bottom.
February 1990. At home mom of 2 little ones,
wife of 8 yrs., restless, irritable and discontent.
Frequented a local club to listen to music and
get a break from motherhood.
I enjoyed being
around others that drank like I because no one
in my home drank. I needed and wanted an escape.
Freedom. Excitement.
Returned home several times in the wee hours
to face areguements, hangovers and guilt but
that Feb. about 2am, less than a mile from home,
I ran into some road construction where my front
wheel hit a 2 ft. notch cut out in the road sending
me off the road and into a concrete culvert sitting
on top the ground.
That incident land me in the hospital via EMS
which to this day I don't remember the ride. I
spent 10 days having my punctured spleen removed
so I wouldn't bleed to death along with fluid removed
from my lung and numerous broken ribs, contusions
and my chin sewn back on after it was racked
across the ash tray in the car. I was pretty
messed up but within a few months I healed almost
perfectly without alcohol and just pain pills.
Once the pills didn't have anymore pain to
kill, I decided to return to the same club in
August 1990 to listen to music and drink.
Again, I returned home to an argument and
this time on a dare I said I will leave this
world and downed a hand full of pills left
over from my accident with remaining wine.
Off to bed I went with no thoughts of the
consequences of my action the next day.
Friday was my little ones last day at Vacation
Bible school and they tried to wake me with
no luck.
Then, in a distance I heard the phone ringing
which was right next to my bed. I struggled to
answer it and with a slurred drowsy voice I spoke
to my mother in Law wondering where I was
and with concern yelled at me to get up.
So I drug myself to the bathroom to force
whatever I had in my system out of me. Then,
before I knew it, my husband was trying to drag
me to the car to take me to the hospital to have
my stomach pumped but I fought him with every
ounce of strength I had and he lost.
All was quiet for awhile and then 2 officers came
in behind my father in law and husband to take
me to the hospital to be evaluated for my frame
of mind. I didn't resist, but I passed both my
father in law and husband and mouthed,"I hate
you" and was led to the back seat of the police
car.
I sat in the backseat screened off from the
police with no handles on the doors, feeling
like a criminal. So ashamed, hurt, angry and
in disbelief my family turned on me. For what?
I wouldn't hurt a hair on anyone. Not little ol me.
That first night I spent in the phyciatric ward
scared as I watched patiants hugging the wall,
shuffling across the floor and mumbling. I surely
was like them at all.
Then the next day I was given a full evaluation
and passed everything with them letting me know
that my only problem was drinking. I had an addiction
to alcohol.
It was then, that I would enter a recovery program
where I would learn about my addiction and receive
some valueable tools of knowledge and books to
take home with me when I completed 28 days in
rehab.
To this day I firmly believe that the phone ringing
next to my bed was my Lord letting me know He
wasn't thru with me yet. I still had work to do and
my life wasn't and still isn't done till He says so.
I have to thank My Higher Power and the
program of AA as well as my family for giving
my life back.
And that is how it has and still works for me
with 24yrs sobriety.
February 1990. At home mom of 2 little ones,
wife of 8 yrs., restless, irritable and discontent.
Frequented a local club to listen to music and
get a break from motherhood.
I enjoyed beingaround others that drank like I because no one
in my home drank. I needed and wanted an escape.
Freedom. Excitement.
Returned home several times in the wee hours
to face areguements, hangovers and guilt but
that Feb. about 2am, less than a mile from home,
I ran into some road construction where my front
wheel hit a 2 ft. notch cut out in the road sending
me off the road and into a concrete culvert sitting
on top the ground.
That incident land me in the hospital via EMS
which to this day I don't remember the ride. I
spent 10 days having my punctured spleen removed
so I wouldn't bleed to death along with fluid removed
from my lung and numerous broken ribs, contusions
and my chin sewn back on after it was racked
across the ash tray in the car.
I was pretty messed up but within a few months I healed almost
perfectly without alcohol and just pain pills.
Once the pills didn't have anymore pain to
kill, I decided to return to the same club in
August 1990 to listen to music and drink.
Again, I returned home to an argument and
this time on a dare I said I will leave this
world and downed a hand full of pills left
over from my accident with remaining wine.
Off to bed I went with no thoughts of the
consequences of my action the next day.
Friday was my little ones last day at Vacation
Bible school and they tried to wake me with
no luck.
Then, in a distance I heard the phone ringing
which was right next to my bed. I struggled to
answer it and with a slurred drowsy voice I spoke
to my mother in Law wondering where I was
and with concern yelled at me to get up.
So I drug myself to the bathroom to force
whatever I had in my system out of me. Then,
before I knew it, my husband was trying to drag
me to the car to take me to the hospital to have
my stomach pumped but I fought him with every
ounce of strength I had and he lost.
All was quiet for awhile and then 2 officers came
in behind my father in law and husband to take
me to the hospital to be evaluated for my frame
of mind. I didn't resist, but I passed both my
father in law and husband and mouthed,"I hate
you" and was led to the back seat of the police
car.
I sat in the backseat screened off from the
police with no handles on the doors, feeling
like a criminal. So ashamed, hurt, angry and
in disbelief my family turned on me. For what?
I wouldn't hurt a hair on anyone. Not little ol me.
That first night I spent in the phyciatric ward
scared as I watched patiants hugging the wall,
shuffling across the floor and mumbling. I surely
was like them at all.
Then the next day I was given a full evaluation
and passed everything with them letting me know
that my only problem was drinking. I had an addiction
to alcohol.
It was then, that I would enter a recovery program
where I would learn about my addiction and receive
some valueable tools of knowledge and books to
take home with me when I completed 28 days in
rehab.
To this day I firmly believe that the phone ringing
next to my bed was my Lord letting me know He
wasn't thru with me yet. I still had work to do and
my life wasn't and still isn't done till He says so.
I have to thank My Higher Power and the
program of AA as well as my family for giving
my life back.
And that is how it has and still works for me
with 24yrs sobriety.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: PA
Posts: 12,000
Rock Bottom: The culmination of a descent to a place where a person has nothing left to lose in terms of possessions, status, wealth and perhaps even shelter, food and warmth as a result of self-destructive behaviour. Alcohol and drug abuse are often contributing factors.
In the infancy of AA, these were the types of people sought after by its founder. Who would be so at a loss for any hope for themselves as these people? This was the target audience for the aa folks in the beginning. The premise was that by focusing attention on these folks it made [me] feel better about [myself]. And so on... That was the original intent and the place from where the originators had been themselves.
AA was a group of extreme drinkers. Very rare to notice those kinds of drunks in today's society. Sure they are out there, but well hidden as we are in a completely different world than even 30 years ago. Trying to convince someone - attracting them - that aa was the only way to save them, for those on their last vestiges of existence, was more or less easy pickings.
As society progressed it became more evident that one needed not be crawling in the gutter drunk to have an "issue" or problem with alcohol. And as our culture progressed even further, alcohol became an accepted part of the living experience. More and more people were exposed to it etc. etc. etc. Does that mean a greater percentage of people are alcoholic now than, say 50 years ago? Probably not. No data available at this time to compare.
What it means to someone like me, is that I have finally come to the realization that my drinking is a cause for concern. Alcohol has interfered with my life, my progress, my personal development, my livelihood, my social standing and relationships. The list goes on.
Rock Bottom is a term for those at the very end. Some people say they have reached "THEIR BOTTOM". It is the point at which I either do something now or it will get worse. Something has occurred that would not have had I not been under the influence of alcohol. I find that I cannot seem to function or face life in general without the aid of alcohol as an escape mechanism or shield from reality. I need to drink in the morning just to be able to get in gear.
Your "bottom" is the point of your own realization that alcohol is no longer something good for you. It's time to get alcohol out of your life.
Sure, how long is a piece of string? My piece of string was long enough for me. I had been carrying that piece of string around for a long time hoping it would get longer. It never did. I finally realized it was exactly the length it needed to be.
The original aa manuscript was based on this premise (rock bottom drunk).
That is why it is difficult for people who are not "rock bottom drunks" to understand it. It wasn't written with them in mind. Subsequent revisions attempted to modernize it but fell way short. That is why you often hear, take what you need and leave the rest. Still there are those hard heads that believe in this thing as if it were some sort of immaculate doctrine presented from the heavens and that if you don't follow it explicitly, you are destined to failure and a miserable existence as a rock bottom drunk.
If you are here asking questions, chances are you have a problem. How extreme the problem is does not matter if you realize something must be done about it.
My wife got seriously drunk at a party about a year and a half ago - she didn't drink a lot. She suffered for a couple days with a hangover. She never drank again. That was her bottom. I suffered like that a hundred of times over the years. Never even slowed me down. We all have different levels of bottom.
In the infancy of AA, these were the types of people sought after by its founder. Who would be so at a loss for any hope for themselves as these people? This was the target audience for the aa folks in the beginning. The premise was that by focusing attention on these folks it made [me] feel better about [myself]. And so on... That was the original intent and the place from where the originators had been themselves.
AA was a group of extreme drinkers. Very rare to notice those kinds of drunks in today's society. Sure they are out there, but well hidden as we are in a completely different world than even 30 years ago. Trying to convince someone - attracting them - that aa was the only way to save them, for those on their last vestiges of existence, was more or less easy pickings.
As society progressed it became more evident that one needed not be crawling in the gutter drunk to have an "issue" or problem with alcohol. And as our culture progressed even further, alcohol became an accepted part of the living experience. More and more people were exposed to it etc. etc. etc. Does that mean a greater percentage of people are alcoholic now than, say 50 years ago? Probably not. No data available at this time to compare.
What it means to someone like me, is that I have finally come to the realization that my drinking is a cause for concern. Alcohol has interfered with my life, my progress, my personal development, my livelihood, my social standing and relationships. The list goes on.
Rock Bottom is a term for those at the very end. Some people say they have reached "THEIR BOTTOM". It is the point at which I either do something now or it will get worse. Something has occurred that would not have had I not been under the influence of alcohol. I find that I cannot seem to function or face life in general without the aid of alcohol as an escape mechanism or shield from reality. I need to drink in the morning just to be able to get in gear.
Your "bottom" is the point of your own realization that alcohol is no longer something good for you. It's time to get alcohol out of your life.
Sure, how long is a piece of string? My piece of string was long enough for me. I had been carrying that piece of string around for a long time hoping it would get longer. It never did. I finally realized it was exactly the length it needed to be.
The original aa manuscript was based on this premise (rock bottom drunk).
That is why it is difficult for people who are not "rock bottom drunks" to understand it. It wasn't written with them in mind. Subsequent revisions attempted to modernize it but fell way short. That is why you often hear, take what you need and leave the rest. Still there are those hard heads that believe in this thing as if it were some sort of immaculate doctrine presented from the heavens and that if you don't follow it explicitly, you are destined to failure and a miserable existence as a rock bottom drunk.
If you are here asking questions, chances are you have a problem. How extreme the problem is does not matter if you realize something must be done about it.
My wife got seriously drunk at a party about a year and a half ago - she didn't drink a lot. She suffered for a couple days with a hangover. She never drank again. That was her bottom. I suffered like that a hundred of times over the years. Never even slowed me down. We all have different levels of bottom.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Aberdeen SD
Posts: 180
The bottom? Its different for everybody. For me I became a PUD (Physically Unable to Drink). I was nearly dead from alcohol abuse. Alcohol burned my mind, body, and soul. I was done with dying. I see many people who 'want' to quit but in the end they need more time in the zombie grave that alcohol digs for them. You really have two choices as a PUD, continue to drink and die, or get treatment.
Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 2,057
In my opinion rock bottom regarding alcoholism is death, its the final stop so to speak!
However with that being said my worst experience with the booze was when one morning I woke up SERIOUSLY hungover and felt out of my mind, hard to explain but I didn't feel like I was in reality ( maybe still drunk ? ) I was TERRIFIED in my room crying on the floor making this weird long scream coming outta my mouth. My mother came in and had to cradle me and rock me back n forth as if I was a newborn baby, I was 28 at the time! Terrified out of my mind with my eyes wide open, it truly was a land of madness I was in!
Never wanna be in that place again!
However with that being said my worst experience with the booze was when one morning I woke up SERIOUSLY hungover and felt out of my mind, hard to explain but I didn't feel like I was in reality ( maybe still drunk ? ) I was TERRIFIED in my room crying on the floor making this weird long scream coming outta my mouth. My mother came in and had to cradle me and rock me back n forth as if I was a newborn baby, I was 28 at the time! Terrified out of my mind with my eyes wide open, it truly was a land of madness I was in!
Never wanna be in that place again!
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