Hitting Rock Bottom

[CuriousDStudent]

I am currently studying about alcoholism and addiction medicine at school and a topic discussed was the idea of "Hitting Rock Bottom" - how addicts need to hit a low-point in their life to change things around. The Big Book also refers to this as something that occurs before a spiritual experience.

Anybody have any opinions on whether they think an addict NEEDS to hit rock-bottom before they change, or if anyone has any medical research about the phenomenon about hitting rock bottom...basically any opinion about the topic will be helpful.

(don't want to influence the thread with my opinion, so I will post what was discussed in my class later)

[sunsetstrip]

All I can say is that I'm at rock bottom right now (bottle of whiskey a night), and I never used to be this way. I am 24, graduated with honours from uni 2 years ago, and when I did that, I was happy, go-lucky, kinda popular. These past 2 years have been a hellish downward spiral, in which a lot of bad shit has gone down, and at times the bottle was honestly the only escape. I started drinking heavily at uni, because it made me feel stupidly creative - I lost my inhibitions and created great work. But -- and this is a BIG but -- my problem then, and now, is that I think way, way too much, and I always needed the booze at night to shut down, dull my senses. And it just escalated from there. Nowadays I drink at night until I cant stand and just pass out in bed. That's a good nights work for me. It's destroyed my creativity, my self-belief, my faith.
So herein lies my point - Last night, I spoke to a friend who I'd lost touch with a long time ago. He asked what I was up to, and when I told him I probably shouldn't talk because I'd been drinking, he made a throwaway comment, something like 'Alot of people say that about you now.' And I just fell apart, I cant tell you. So today I woke up, I cleared up all the empties from around my place, and I kept busy all day. I'm going cold turkey. I do NOT want that comment to define me in peoples eyes.
I don't know if that was in anyway helpful or relevent. But good luck with your studies...!

[champ922]

I am 41 and have been an alcoholic for 25 years and it is getting worse. I want to get help before I am "forced" to get help, but I am afraid to take that first step. I have a 13 year old and I know it effects him. I want him to be proud of me instead of being embarrassed. You would think that when he asks me to stop drinking I would do it, but I don't.

[shinningstar]

I used to drink alcohol but I'm not addicted to it. I think I still have enough time to avoid myself of drinking too much alcohol. I remembered our neighbor died of ung cancer because of too much alcohol. I don't want to be like them.

[Ricardo]

I haven't studied alcoholism formally, but I've know some people with problems and I think that not everyone would need to have a "rock bottom" experience.

I think some people can trigger a change with a more subtle realization that they need to change or get help.

[mtajim]

Generally when an addict hits the rock bottom he feels that he should leave drugs , but anyone who doesnot sees those bad days will not think that drugs are bad and wont leave it

[Noxic]

You might just need to wake up and realize it. I had a buddy that one day just got up and said "You know what? I'm tired of this." I don't know what was going through his mind, but he really pulled through. He now works a full time job, he still parties a bit though. It was hard for him.

[mtajim]

Yes , its hard but once a addicts realises his mistake its never too late for him to get back to normal life

[rapistt]

Yeah you are right that it not very late for addict if admits but the problem is that it is not so easy for people to admit that they are addict.

[easternbrain]

Re-surfacing again after hitting rock-bottom is a pretty difficult thing to do. Specially if you dont have someone to rely on. I been in a pretty bad situation myself and still struggling to cope up(it wasn't because of addictions though).

It becomes a kind of make or break situation for any person.

[Roxy]

You are right but no one want to live in shit. Every one try to make his/her life livable and thats the thing that matter. If you will not try then you will never be able to cope up.