What would you consider "bottom" for somebody dealing with chemical addiction?
Question:
Answers:
Each person's bottom is different. Each person knows when he has hit his bottom.
Some people hit VERY low bottoms - they end up in prison, or injured for life, or divorced, or bankrupted, or ill, or face legal problems, or in some other severe situation.
Some people don't "lose it all" - but they still KNOW when they've hit bottom.
The most bottom of the bottom, of course, is they end up dead.
I am a recovering alcoholic, here's my story:
I have made at least eight trips to the psych unit since 2001, each time being there for at least a week. I did therapy and meds, intensive outpatient, lost a close love relationship, had my first DUI in 2003 in which I wrecked my car and suffered a broken collarbone and sternum, lost my license for 6 months, had to attend IDRC and a 14 week counseling thing, stayed mostly broke, lost close friendships, ruined my reputation, spent a night in jail last August, ran with seedy characters to drug neighborhoods, fell a number of times and got banged up ("unexplained bruises"), blacked out a lot, browned out even more, made a fool of myself, did property damage at my university, had to quit halfway through a PhD program, had to move back home at 41, all the while could never hold a steady job, had risky sex with strangers, scared my family and friends, troubled my family financially, alienated many people, and finally, last month, got my second DUI, for which I will soon lose my license for two years, face thousands in fines and expenses, have to attend IDRC (again) and will be committed to a 16 week counseling program for drunk drivers. I consider this last event (DUI) my bottom, and I am not going back to that mess.
I'm grateful to be alive, and am doing everything I can to get better.
Again, everyone's bottom is different. I consider myself fortunate. I suffer from a mental illness, and for that I do not apologize.
(For more details, see my 360 page - I am blogging my progress.)
Other Answers:
When the user can no longer function in society.
The loss of everything good in my life (home, family, job, money) would be hitting bottom for me.
i would consider hitting bottom when the ONLY thing on your mind is the drug. also if the person resorts to prostitution stealing and robbery to get the drug. an other example is not being able to stay sober without freaking out or when they cant remember being sober last
Hitting bottom is losing everything you once lover and stopped caring about people who loved you.
Hitting bottom is when people love you more than you love your self
when my grandmother has to lock her television in the truck of her car and hide money in her bra and keep a padlock on her bedroom door.
When I first started using, it was fun. I lived to use. In the end, I had to use to live. This was my bottom. When I ended up in the hospital with no access to chemicals, I almost died. When I didn't, I tried to take my own life. There are much worse things than death, and detoxing is one of them.
I would say an overdose, or near death experience
below it is loss of family, friends, job.
however these are all external signs of addiction and personal bottom
in fact, they do not matter in the long term
all that matters is that someone hits their personal psychological bottom, and reach a point in which their world is so limited psychologically, that a decision must be made.
Change HAS to, MUST come from the inside.
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