Most people have suffered wide-ranging types of addiction, from the mundane to the ones that cause harm to themselves or to others.
Compulsive shopping and drinking gallons of coffee on a daily basis are common addictions, as are more extreme examples like being dependent on illegal substances or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.
It's a slippery slope that many individuals experience and are in too deep to even notice their vices have taken control over their precious lives.
It takes a major lifeline in the form of an intervention or hitting an absolute lowest point in life to come to terms with the issues, recalibrate their choices, and, hopefully, turn things around.
Those who've miraculously turned their lives around shared their stories when Redditor CreepyAssociation173 asked:
"Ex addicts of Reddit, what was your rock bottom that made you realize you had to stop?"
Former alcoholics who survived the worst wanted to share their harrowing accounts of a former life.
Waking From A Coma
"I was a serious alcoholic for many years. 5 years ago I ended up in a coma. 2 weeks later I woke up and never looked back. I feel like a part of me died. I lost a lot of friends, family, money, etc. but I’m happy with the outcome."
"I have two brothers. Both of them have a fentanyl addiction. The youngest one (in his 20s) died 3 days ago. We both found him and tried to save him, saw things we will never forget. The other brother is now 2 days clean in detox and getting ready to start rehab after finishing. Hopefully he never looks back either."
– Quick-Potato-3638
Parents Come To The Rescue
"I didn't drink until college, but when I did I hit it like a freight train. By the time I was in my late 20s I was having withdrawal seizures. Had my first one Dec 26th 2016 and that kept up until 2020. I was hospitalized multiple times for them and had more that went 'unreported' (once at work) but I don't think anyone really noticed or cared enough to do anything substantial about it. Even myself. Every day I would vomit and feel sick, I had bruises everywhere from god knows what, but I never really cared enough to change. Between me and my husband we were going though 3 handles of cheap vodka a week. What broke me, us, it, whatever was my husband's body giving out Feb 2020 just as the world fell apart too. Our dog died Feb 15th and I think part of us did too, for husband anyways it was his liver and kidneys. They had finally had enough and called it quits. By the time he got to the ER Feb 23rd he was a Simpsons character. As he got treatment and I stayed by his side, still drinking insanely but now he was in the hospital so I was alone."
"In mid March he somehow got a transfer to Stanford and started the process for a liver and kidney transplant with about a 30% chance of survival. His family hated me at this point and I was forbidden to contact him and, I broke. There was no one, espctially now with Covid making it's debut to help or care about me. For two weeks I drank, sized, vomited, cut myself, fell downstairs... It was actually this *exact* time 3 years ago where I was all alone with no one but vodka and my cat and somehow I didn't die. Heh. Then the lockdown was offically called for California March 25th and my MIL decided to evict me the same day so my parents begrudgingly drove the 4hrs to get me, load up their car with as much of my crap (but mostly toilet paper) as possible and I lived in their basement for 3 years while I picked up the pieces of my little life. I couldn't quit cold turkey, I was still having seizures at this point, but I weened myself off slowly and now on Day 990! Comma Club here I come!"
– FroggiJoy87
Acknowledging Is The First Step
"Not an addict myself, unfortunately he only realized he really needed to stop right before it killed him. My fiance was a severe alcoholic, at his worst he drank half a gallon of vodka a day. He'd been trying to quit for a while, off and on, I kept trying to get him to stop. I'd go to doctor's appointments with him and he would always avoid saying he was an alcoholic because he didn't want it on his medical record. He hadn't been feeling well for a while, he had to quit drinking two or three days before because we were broke, and he asked me to take him to the hospital. We got into triage and the nurse was going through intake questions with him, and he said 'I am an alcoholic.' That shocked me, that's how I knew it was rock bottom, because he'd been so adamant that no medical professional know he's an alcoholic, but this time, he didn't even hesitate. His liver was failing, and a week later he died. I wish so badly that he could've gotten better and turned it around, I really think he could have if he survived, but I also think he knew it was the end."
– Swell_Inkwell
Becoming Jobless
"Getting fired. Having to tell my spouse who was unaware of my issue (I functioned very well). Then getting served divorce papers while I was entering treatment two weeks later. My home became the treatment center for 90 days and when I was finished I had nowhere to go since my spouse took possession of the house. So I was homeless, penniless, jobless. That pretty much incentivized me to continue on my path of recovery."
– Phasianidae
These habits wound up costing Redditors financial losses.
The First Addiction
"I've hit rock bottom a few times for different addictions. The first was my gambling addiction. It was so bad that I was stealing scratch tickets from my workplace, where we weren't even allowed to be playing lottery from in the first place. I got fired (understandably), and my boss could have easily pressed charges, but he didn't. He gave me a second chance for which I will forever be grateful."
– maymayiscraycray
Saving The Life Of A Pet
"Mine was only weed but I was spending around $600 a week. My rock bottom was spending my dog’s home euthanasia savings on drugs, she had a brain tumour so I had the money aside so she could go comfortably when the time was right. She was my closest family and meant the world to me, I’d have traded our places in a second if I could’ve, she was all the goodness in my life. I ended up quitting cold turkey, did some extra work and sold a bunch of my possessions to remake the money within a week, was just in time to because she needed that money a few days later."
"The realisation that I had put my addiction before the comfort of my beloved dying dog was my turning point."
– Chrysocyon_b
Not everyone who battles drug addiction manages to come out the other side alive. Fortunately, these Redditors did.
Waking Up In The Hospital
"Im making this post with no intention of deleting it like 90% of what I post in hopes it will make me more accountable."
"I OD’d recently on some presses/xanax (been addicted to fent for close to 3 years now and was using heroin before then)."
"Woke up in the hospital with no hearing and realized I have no friends, either dead or couldnt handle watching me tear myself apart from closer than an arms length. I’ve been running around the last 6 years lashing out at myself and hurting others in the process. It made me feel selfish and uncaring."
"I’ve been on a subuxone taper since and threw all the sh*t I had out the moment I got back. 14th time is the charm or some sh*t."
– burgerstm
A Friend's Response To Rambling
"I used to down amphetamine pills like crazy back in the day. The end of that train happened when I was sitting with a friend who knew me prior to these addictions, and he was looking at me like I had two heads as I rambled on and on and cried and burst out laughing and basically made a huge scene of myself in the middle of a restaurant. After that day, I called up my dad and told him I needed to come crash at his house for a couple of weeks as I detoxed. I didn’t realize just how fried my brain was because most of my life for a year was spent surrounded by other people just as off the chain as me."
– Upstairs_Cow
Addictions can take on many forms, and some might not even be able to identify them as an addiction.
But others have talked about social media addictions, phone addiction and even work addiction, where an employee took on more shifts to make more money but later realized they were missing out on life.
Anything that takes you away from living and slowly wears you down is not healthy.
As one Redditor noted, here's an encouraging note to leave on.
NightKatCares00 wrote:
"For everyone who is struggling-"
"Please, keep trying. Keep fighting. You can do it, I believe in you. It sucks and it's hard, but you CAN do it!"
"Don't give up, please. You are wonderful and deserve it. You can do this!"