Recovery Reading 03/08/24: Step One and Hitting Your Own Bottom

Once you’ve hit bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up

Photo by Logan Fisher on Unsplash

You may have heard this saying before: “The alcoholic will seek help when he or she hits bottom.” Well, the people who live with and/or love a problem drinker must hit bottom, too. In fact, the alcoholic may already be seeking help before we cut through our denial and seek help for ourselves. We have to admit to ourselves that our life has become unmanageable. We have to hit our own bottom.

Hitting bottom

So, when does one finally hit bottom? I can’t speak for others and I can’t predict when your bottom will smack you upside the head, but--if you’re lucky--it will happen. All I’m qualified to tell you about is my own experience.

One overcast weekend morning I woke up, went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, and went into the kitchen to get breakfast. My unshaven father was standing at the sink, dressed in his red red terry robe and slippers, looking through the kitchen window out into the backyard. He was smoking a cigarette as usual. When he turned to face me, he looked exhausted and his eyes were bloodshot. He said to me, “Sometimes I feel like I should go to the backyard and shoot myself in the head.”