J.K. Rowling was at her worst when she formed the life and story of a young boy she decided to call Harry Potter. With little to no money in her pocket, desperate for a break, Rowling was struck with creativity and worked endlessly, mostly on napkins in coffee shops to start, to create the Harry Potter series. For five years, Rowling faced rejections from publishers, until finally her manuscript was approved. Today, Harry Potter is one of the most successful franchises in history with a series of books, movies, theme parks, and endless commodities. Today, J.K. Rowling has more net worth than the Queen of her home country England. Rowling is famous for saying that rock bottom was the foundation upon which she was able to build her life. She knew when she had hit her lowest and instead of digging her hole deeper, she dug her way out.
For Rowling, rock bottom was a real place. It never got worse, it only got better. For men who are living with active addiction and/or alcoholism, rock bottom can appear more than once. Typically in addiction, rock bottom gets worse because, as it is said in recovery, “Rock bottom always comes with a shovel”. Those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol lose their perspective of negative consequences and the severity of those negative consequences, due to the way addiction alters the brain. What could seem like the lowest of the low to John might be just the beginning of the worst to Steve. John might “hit rock bottom” and find his way to recovery, never to look back. Steve, on the other hand, might never think he’s hit bottom and keep digging his way to increasingly worse circumstances. Whether Steve will ever have enough or comes to believe that enough truly is enough with his addiction, will be up to Steve. From this example it is plain to see: rock bottom is a matter of perspective.
Problematically, there is a lot of focus on rock bottom in the treatment and recovery world. The myth of rock bottom mistakenly informs men that their addiction has to be the worst it could possibly be before treatment is really necessary. As the stories of John and Steve show, there’s never a way of knowing what the worst will be. Treatment for addiction is an intervention which can take place before addiction gets to be its worst. Unfortunately, many men who are addicted are not ready, able, or willing to see that they need help until they reach some point in their life which resembles rock bottom.
When you know you are ready for treatment, you know. If you are a man struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, there is a way out. There is a way up from here. Tree House Recovery helps men find freedom from addiction by creating sustainable changes for a sustainable recovery. Are you ready to change your life? We’re ready to help. Call (855) 202-2138 today for more information.
