Hitting rock bottom
We have come up with this term rock bottom to denote the bottom of our suffering; the worst of the worst of situations. We feel annihilated and separated from our sense of self and community. Rock bottom is as bad as it gets, or at least as bad as it has got so far.
There are a few key nuances that we are served to remember about what it actually means to hit rock bottom. The bad news first. However bad things are or were when you felt like rock bottom, there are infinite layers of hell beneath. Things can always get worse no matter how bad they were. A lot of us see hitting rock bottom in a superstitious way that somehow since we have reached a new level of suffering this means that it is only up from here. There is nothing that guarantees that we have reached the depth of our suffering.
The good news though is that rock bottom isn’t just about the “worst of it”. It’s about hitting the point of your suffering that is solid as a rock; the point from which you can actually have a chance at bouncing back. Having your life fall apart feels like you’re falling through quicksand. You can barely breath and you can’t seem to find anything stable to hold on to. Hitting rock bottom hurts and it is a reminder of how far you’ve fallen but it is also the first sense of stability that you will experience since you started your fall. It’s hell, there’s no getting around that, but it’s still a solid foundation from which you can regain your bearings and start you ascent back to recovery.
Hitting rock bottom is painful but now you are not falling and now you can start to climb.
Rock bottom is your friend.