It's not always about rock bottom

You often hear about people with addiction issues "hitting rock bottom", and that being the point where they decide to make a change. It's also a fact that the failure rate for addiction recovery is around 90%. What, do we think they just didn't hit "rock bottom" enough? Going to jail, losing their spouse, their home, their dignity, their everything didn't what, suck quite enough?

I have been there, after a big time MBA and a great corporate gig, my wife and high school sweetheart passed away. I absolutely lost my shit. I went from making good six-figures, having a beautiful home and nice things to sleeping under bridges and lying in my own vomit. The worst part was when there were pinks chunks, and it would stick to your clothes so you looks abominable instead of just smelling horrid. (And WTF did I eat last night anyway?!) I wouldn't even bother to shower it off, I'd just lie there until I was sober enough that the lady at the liquor store would sell me more, despite how god awful I smelled.

I'm pretty sure many of those times I wasn't near sober enough to legally sell it, it just wasn't worth the bullshit to make me leave so they did it anyway.

Here's a news flash - that's freaking rock bottom. I guess I could have resorted to selling myself for money, I knew many who did; so I there's always farther one can fall. Here's the thing though:

When you are down at the bottom with nothing to lose, nothing really seems to matter. Oh, get a job, be a respectable contributing member of society? Are you freaking kidding me? Just get me another fucking bottle.

Lucky for me, I didn't drink away my brain, and I'm smart enough and educated enough that when sober, I can usually get a job. I did this for years. Get a job, hold it together for a few months, mess up, and lose it. I lost count of how many six figure jobs I have lost, but it's more than half a dozen. I always ended up broke, broken, and often under a damn bridge again.

It wasn't hitting rock bottom that eventually got me to change, it was sleeping in a nice warm bed while it was a blizzard outside, full, with a phone, internet, etc, and a girlfriend. It wasn't the rock bottom part of things that made me want to change, it was the not wanting to go back to it again, because blizzards outside suck. Even if you are passed out.

I think it's time we reevaluate the concept of "rock bottom" A lot of people in that place aren't ready to get out of it. But, looking at it from their point of view, why bother? Life is just an endless stream of misery. What they need isn't theorapy and AA, it's something to lose. A place. A partner. A TV. Whatever it is.

I'm not advocating for buying every addict a house and a car, many/most of them would piss it away. But it's awfully hard to be motivated when your life is a group home with no privacy and a job at McDonalds. We need a third solution, we need to give addicts something that they know they will lose if they go back to their previous life. We also need to give them a sense of purpose, something that they have a reason and a responsibility for.

Give them a path back. Set them up in a small place of their own, give them a stipend, and have them select from a trade at the local community college. Pair them up with an elderly person and have them be their companion. An addict turned criminal costs tens of thousands of dollars a year to care for (or hold in jail) this would likely save money int he long run. It wold turn folks who are sucking resources from he system into contributing members of society.

And best yet, it wold give people their dignity back.

It's not about rock bottom, it's about having something to lose.