Permanently Deleted
This rock bottom shit is not based on any science though. Sometimes people just kinda get their shit together but not totally. In Norway they offer housing to drug addicts not contingent on testing or therapy whatsoever. They don’t usually get clean, and a lot of the times they eventually die. But it’s less likely and well it’s just a nice thing to do. The rock bottom stuff is pure ideology. The real rock bottom is death.
Also, I don’t think we can determine for others what they need to do. If someone wants to get high until they die as grim as it might seem they have control over their own life. Doesn’t mean it’s not a nice thing to do to give them money. It’ll still improve things for them.
With that said if you have better things to spend your money on I can’t blame you, I don’t give money because frankly I need it myself. And there is lots of other stuff you can give your energy to if you want.
But the moralizing is gross. As are the claims on how other people should live their life if we care about them. Give money or don’t it’s fine but shaming is controlling and unhelpful
I’m glad you commented these thoughts. I’m a recovered addict who works with addicts and I commented my experiences in reply to amethystamiss too.
Myself and many addicts get clean after many attempts… and the successful attempt is usually when there’s some hope and support in the picture. The opposite of rock bottom.
It’s hard as a recovered addict to even wrap your head around how you came to be successfully sober after so much hardship and failure to do so. I can see why many just adopt the AA/NA mythology of “I finally hit rock bottom,” or “I finally took responsibility for my addiction,”… it’s an easier narrative than “my tenth attempt was good timing, a decent treatment model, and a dose of luck,” which is how it feels to me.
I’m a huge proponent of giving addicts resources regardless of their sobriety or even their intentions regarding sobriety. One of the most important messages to them is that they are still a part of society, they are not broken off from it… that there’s a decent life waiting for them on the other side.
