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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!
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.