Hi All , I just want to touch on "hitting Bottom" as it is mentioned in the literature, and bandied about the rooms all the time, You ask people about their respective bottoms, and most tell you about, prostituting themselves, jails, losing families, being broke, and on . this all may be part of their respective bottoms, However this is not the element that the oldtimers were talking about and/or trying to get across.

                                      What they are refering to is that point we get to where, nothing matters, when we feel hopeless, worthless, less than, where a gun in the mouth or a jump off a bridge, or just completely giving up is a serious consideration the place I call, "Alone, Lonely and wanting to Die" or what today cousellors and most health professionals would call "a little depression" you just need some medication and a shoulder or maybe some institutional living. It becomes the point that we are vulnerable and the EGO is disoriented and beaten, It is at this point that we can actually take the directions and Guidance  (suggestions) that the 12 Step Program provides. It is a this point that one can admit to his/her innermost self that there is a problem and they require help. It is at this point that we can SURRENDER to the wisdom of the 12 step program. Without this state how many of us will actually and utterly concede to our innermost selves the need for help, the need for a better way. How many of us will surrender to do what the program actually asks us to do. Without this is the main reason many of us relapse.

                                              We are ego maniacs with an inferiority complex, se believe we can do things for ourselves. That most people don't know what they're talking about, and that they just don't understand, If we only had, the money, the family, the white.picket fence, ETC. Or the old famous "I'm not hurting anyone". That place of denial and delusion. With out a Bottom we stay in those places. We need to hit bottom to begin recovery with a solid foundation