Hitting Bottom
Read more here:
The Devil’s Dictionary: Hitting Bottom
Parents of Addicts Question Expert Advice to Allow Harm
Attention Bloggers and Webmasters: If you have a blog or website, please consider linking to this page whenever you use the term “hitting bottom.” Just turn the words “hitting bottom” into a link pointed to this page, and you will help many of your readers gain a new perspective on this important concept. You will also help people living with addiction who often suffer based on the recovery myth that hitting bottom leads to or is necessary for recovery. Thanks!
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- Addiction, Lies, Consequences and Recovery — Recovery Helpdesk
- March 2, 2010 at 9:33 pm
- Parents of Addicts Question Expert Advice to Allow Harm
- May 21, 2010 at 4:06 am
- Info on Interventions - SoberRecovery : Alcoholism Drug Addiction Help and Information
- March 8, 2011 at 8:22 pm
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- 1 February 14, 2010 at 5:03 pm
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Wow, I could not agree more!! Fantastic post!!!
Another term that I dislike in recovery is “addict thinking” or “addictive personality”. I don’t believe people have an “addictive personality” any more than they have a “diabetic personality” or a “schizophrenic personality”, etc. I don’t believe in most cases that opioid addiction is a personality disorder–I believe it is a brain disease–a chemical imbalance on the brain.
Are some addicts selfish, rude, jerks in general? Sure. Just as with any group of people. But are those things part and parcel of BEING an addict? I don’t think so.
For myself, the few illegal things I did during active addiction were things so alien to my personality that they caused me horrific emotional distress and I felt I had no other choice but to do these things or die–and oftentimes, dying seemed a better option. It was certainly not that I thought it was ok to do these things, nor that I was “selfish” and did not care about the impact on others, etc. And as soon as my chemical imbalance was appropriately treated (with methadone), I returned to being the person I was raised to be, without requiring extensive counseling and therapy or a personality overhaul.
Wondering about your thoughts on these terms?
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It’s a myth that people have to “hit bottom” before they can achieve recovery from addiction to heroin or pain killers like OxyContin.
The truth is, just hitting bottom (having really bad things happen to you so that you feel like you can’t take it any more and desperately want to change) is not enough to make or allow somebody stop using. The world is full of addicted people who have had really bad things happen to them and who desperately want to change.
If you care about someone who is living with addiction, it’s important that you figure this out.
Motivation is not all it takes to achieve recovery. So hitting bottom is not enough to create the conditions for recovery.
Not only is hitting bottom not enough to result in recovery, hitting bottom is not necessary to build motivation for recovery or achieve recovery.
The hitting bottom concept is a dangerous and destructive concept that hurts people living with addiction. It directs and gives people permission to allow preventable harm to happen to already vulnerable people who are struggling with addiction. This often results in serious harm with no benefit.
The concept is very much a part of recovery mythology at this point, and it is a myth worth exposing.