Is hitting bottom a motivation for stopping drinking?

Is hitting bottom a motivation for stopping drinking? Not for this man, he resisted the idea of getting sober even through very difficult events in his life.

Over the course of two-three years these were the actual events in one man’s life, not one of them stopped him from consuming alcohol on a very regular basis.

Are these “hitting bottom”?

• Job loss

• Girlfriend leaves

• Job loss

• 2^nd girlfriend leaves

• Gives up apartment and most of his possessions

• Moves in with parents 6 hours from his former life

• Another treatment center for 30 days

• No job prospects

• Threats to repossess his truck

• Accident in truck

• Gets into fight in local bar

• Demand letters from creditors and the IRS

• All terrain vehicle accident, fractured hip

• Suicidal thoughts

• Another fistfight and fractured hand

• Living on friend’s couch in another state

Do you want help now? his family would ask, “No!  I’m a fighter. I’ll be okay.”

He seemed to see ‘the bottoms’ as temporary, something to fight through. He resisted getting sober even when things are going badly in his life. He had always had to be good at weathering the storms.

He would back off alcohol for a while, for a doctor appointment or a temporary job, but as soon as things cool down, he began drinking again. Perhaps his addicted brain can’t make lasting connections between alcohol and the problems it causes.

Addicts don’t want to cause trouble or hurt the people they love. Quite the contrary: they struggle to be the person they think they still are, the person they were before the addiction took hold. They can’t make sense of their own actions. As their addiction progresses and troubles mount, they work harder to manage their lives, but addiction never lets anyone lead a life free of trouble. There are always problems, big and small. Bad behavior, poor decisions and emotional upheaval are all symptoms of this disease that affects both the brain and soul. Families are confused, too. Not understanding what is happening to their loved ones, they mutter: “When will she learn?” But addicts can’t learn because addiction keeps tightening its grip, demanding complete allegiance. LOVEFIRST.NET

So where is your bottom? Or do we have one?  For this man, there doesn’t seem to be one, for him I feel it is the source of the drinking that is his issue, the pain he feels, the fear he carries from very old wounds.  He is still fearful and fighting to protect himself

Even though he is really safe now.

Is hitting bottom a motivation for stopping drinking? Not for this man, he resisted the idea of getting sober even through very difficult events in his life.