As an active alcoholic I may have heard the expression "rock bottom" and had some inkling of what it meant. Most likely a place where life could get no more difficult and no worse, whatever way we might look at our situation. A completely desolate place of existence, no inner resource left inside me, put down and done…
I can remember going to a rehab centre after I thought I had reached rock bottom only to find that the staff were determined to make sure I was at rock bottom by tormenting me further. After months in the rehab centre I left with anger, rage and hate. Bullying people to death is not rehabilitation; it's a death sentence…
At rock bottom we have been hurt by life and by our own hands. My own experience is, hurt people can hurt more people in order to prove a point. Thank goodness fellowship is all about learning how to love, be loved back and useful one day at a time…
DonInLondon 2005-2011
Listening to another share their compassion and concern for another who had deeply wounded their spirit for many years gave me a feeling of joy that redemption is possible, forgiveness is real in the most extreme moments, and being human we can all learn as time affords. Seeing people grow into their true selves is a real joy today...
HITTING BOTTOM ~ JANUARY 16, 2012 Why all this insistence that every A.A. must hit bottom first? The answer is that few people will sincerely try to practice the A.A. program unless they have hit bottom. For practicing A.A.’s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking. TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, p. 24
Hitting bottom opened my mind and I became willing to try something different. What I tried was A.A. My new life in the Fellowship was a little like learning how to ride a bike for the first time: A.A. became my training wheels and my supporting hand. It’s not that I wanted the help so much at the time; I simply did not want to hurt like that again. My desire to avoid hitting bottom again was more powerful than my desire to drink. In the beginning that was what kept me sober. But after a while I found myself working the Steps to the best of my ability. I soon realized that my attitudes and actions were changing – if ever so slightly. One Day at a Time, I became comfortable with myself, and others, and my hurting started to heal. Thank God for the training wheels and supporting hand that I choose to call Alcoholics Anonymous.
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