Rock Bottom

There a general accepted platitude about alcoholism that the addict has to hit rock bottom before they can start recovery. Like most of the platitudes and accepted ‘knowledge’ about drinking and alcoholism, it is not only incorrect it is also dangerous and contributes to the problem.

Firstly why should an addict have to hit rock bottom before looking to remedy the situation? If you had a bad cough that you weren’t shaking off and you went to the doctor, what would you think if he or she said;

“Yes, this is getting quite serious. But as yet it’s still just a cough. I suggest we wait for it to develop into pneumonia, then pleurisy, then respiratory failure, then I’ll give you some antibiotics.”

Or to put it another way, imagine if you were addicted a drug that you were taking one dose of everyday at a cost of £5 that left you feeling tired and irritable all day. You have a choice of curing this addiction today or in ten years’ time. If you cure yourself in ten years’ time you’ll be up to ten doses a day, and you will have lost your family, your friends, your job, your friends and your house, you’ll have long term serious health issues and, perhaps worse than all of these things, you’ll have been very very miserable for all of those ten years.

When would you choose to cure yourself?

In fact the reason why the idea of having to hit rock bottom has become so prevalent is that addicts who have hit rock bottom have the best chance of stopping. All recreational drugs starts off being apparently enjoyable with very little downside. Over time the enjoyment decreases and the downside increases. You end up needing the drug just to feel normal, and you feel anxious and miserable without it. The less apparently enjoyable the drug, and the more detrimental the ill-effects, the more likely the addict is to be able to stop long term. The more miserable their life with the drug, the more likely they are to be able to stick with a life without it.

With alcohol this aspect is exacerbated because drinking is so widespread and such a big part of so many people’s lives. People search desperately for any excuse not to stop, to convince themselves that they don’t have a problem, and generally speaking those who have suffered the most damage from their drinking are the ones who are least likely to be able to convince themselves that they don’t have a problem so pretend to themselves that they can safely drink again.

The other problem of course that this ‘rock bottom’ belief causes is that it makes quitting drinking shameful, because it leads to the assumption that the quitter has a serious problem with alcohol and is one of the tainted few, instead of just being someone who has taken a sensible and logical decision to cut something unpleasant out of their lives.

In fact rock bottom should have absolutely no impact on your decision to quit. I have said before and continue to say, the decision to stop drinking should not be;

‘Am I alcoholic? If so stop drinking, if not continue’.

It should be;

‘From a simple costs / benefit analysis, is drinking alcohol worth doing?’

To put is another way is the slightly dulled feeling you get from each drink worth the corresponding feeling of anxiety as the drink wears off, the insomnia, the lethargy, the weight gain, the arguments, the hangovers, the blackouts and the financial cost?

If the answer is no, it’s not worth it, then the only logical thing to do is quit. The more years down the line you are the more likely you are to come to the conclusion that it’s not worth carrying on, but if you fully understand the nature of alcohol even those just starting out will find it hard to justify continuing.

As I put in a response to a facebook post in the Alcohol Explained facebook group today, it helps to keep things in perspective. Some people see alcohol as a way of life, as a defining feature of their personality, a way of coping with life. It’s none of those things, it’s just a drug that makes you feel slightly dulled, that people just happen to put into their bloodstream by drinking it, instead of injecting it, or smoking it, or snorting it.

Why should you wait for it to utterly destroy you before cutting it out of your life entirely?