2. Does the Addict Have to Hit Bottom?

Posted by Tony Bylsma on February 15, 2010 under How to Help a Drug Addict | Be the First to Comment

We’ve all heard the old line, “A person has to hit the bottom before he’ll realize he needs to quit drugs.”  This is one of those sayings that have just barely enough truth in them to literally kill someone.

We are talking here about drug addiction, a potentially lethal activity that is practically defined by poor and dangerous choices. To “hit bottom” can be a deadly or nearly deadly event. You may as well teach a child to stay out of traffic by letting him be hit by a truck.

There is nothing to be gained by allowing them to become less aware of themselves and life; no profit from watching the addict sink deeper and deeper, hoping they will hit the bottom sooner rather than later. The bottom may well be so deep they cannot come back, at least not with their senses and abilities intact.

The trouble with the “Sink or Swim” philosophy is that a large percentage will sink—not very therapeutic, at least not for the sinkers. The whole idea is based on the belief that you can frighten someone into taking responsibility for his or her life. This strategy fails far too often to be a workable technique.

Rather than letting the addict sink all the way down to a possibly tragic bottom, we can show the bottom to them. Make them aware of the likely consequences of their actions.

This is called, “Bring the bottom up to them.” Put it right in their face what miseries addiction causes and how this can happen to them as well.

When I say make them aware, I mean prove to them that drug abuse has negative effects that occur right from the start, even before addiction sets in and long before they end up on the streets. Show them the street addicts, heroin and crack users living in tents or just hanging out on the corners, waiting for an opportunity to make the bucks for another dose. These people didn’t start out on those corners; they arrived there by a series of small steps, each step doing a bit more damage, carrying them a little further down the road to addiction and ruin. Each time they used the drug, it contributed to the final condition they are in.

There is a point, for anyone, beyond which they are not willing to go, a level of pain or of degradation or injury that could finally be considered, even by them, the bottom. And some will not turn their lives around until they reach that point—some not even then.

But, If we can bring the awareness of the addict up to a point where it becomes clear to them, that this is the road they are on. And also make it clear that the bottom is worth avoiding, we may save a life.