Hitting Bottom

People in 12-step programs call a crisis experience “hitting bottom.” It is any experience, or series of experiences, that bring you to the point where you are ready to ask for help and to do something different. This works for very stubborn people who won’t change until their life is really a mess and being stuck has turned into what the book of Alcoholics Anonymous refers to as “incomprehensible demoralization.” By this I mean that all hope is gone and the person in question is either in a life-threatening situation or so depressed that she or he can barely get out of bed and may even be suicidal. Many people in the grips of such a dilemma die. They take their own lives, sometimes slowly through addiction, and sometimes quickly by jumping off a bridge. For others, however, this incomprehensible demoralization triggers a fear of death and then the next move is quite clear. Change or die!