6 Things I Learned From Hitting Rock Bottom

Have you hit rock bottom in your life? Don’t worry you’re not alone. There’s not enough Pinterest memes to describe what it feels like to hit rock bottom. Let’s face it, life isn’t perfect.

But when you have fallen apart at rock bottom, that’s when you take those pieces and piece yourself back together. Like re-programming yourself to work differently. Does that make sense?

“Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom in order to self-reflect and rebuild yourself. Hitting rock bottom is a wake-up call that something you’re doing in your life is not good for you. It’s a sign that you need to stop, breathe and make some serious changes. A month ago, this was me.”

Whether you lost your job, got a divorce, got out of a very bad marriage, drug addiction, or just an addiction in general. Rock bottom is different for everyone. How everyone handles rock bottom is different as well.

I hit rock bottom at the end of 2011, once I found out my husband wanted a divorce. I was the kind of rock bottom, where you denied you had a problem. Which is honestly the worst. I wasn’t at rock bottom at that point.

A lot of bad choices I made in life after that put me there. I let myself get to an unhealthy weight, I just didn’t eat for months and lost 60 lbs, I drank, I met the wrong people. It was all negative things.

While at rock bottom – I made plenty of stupid mistakes and choices. At that point, I was just filling all the holes of my life with addiction and just didn’t care where it took me.

It numbed the pain, so I thought I was better. I told myself everything was fine. I told my family and friends were fine. Why lie? I didn’t want to change.

Why did I have all this pain – why couldn’t I act like nothing was wrong, like my ex did so well. But then I learned, everyone handles life differently. I like to think I had to hit rock bottom to learn more about myself and rebuild myself.

Hitting rock bottom is one thing, but finding a way out of hitting rock bottom. Isn’t as easy as one would think. Here are 6 things I learned from my rock bottom. Maybe they can help you or at least remind you there’s hope.

I still battle with some of these things, but I learned the warning signs and refuse to let myself sink back into the rock bottom stage.

6 Things I Learned From Hitting Rock Bottom

You always have a choice. Always.

When you’re at rock bottom. You have two choices, you can stay there and let it destroy you or you can get up. If you have never been at the rock bottom, of course your choice is easy. But when you’re actually there. Depending on how lost you are, it’s harder than it sounds. But you ALWAYS have a choice. I choose life. I wanted to get out of rock bottom.

Take baby steps, don’t rush yourself.

When you’re at the bottom and you’re trying to get out. Doing too much at once will make you feel over worked and you will go back to doing nothing. So take baby steps.. organize a shelf, make your bed, take a shower, take a walk. Make goals, but don’t over due yourself. If you make goals for each day of the week, by the end of the week you will feel accomplished. Don’t forgot to eat, I still battle with this. I can go 2 days without eating and feel fine in my head, but it’s not healthy. I went a week without showering. Ya’ll it was bad.

Find a hobby or new activity to keep your mind busy.

Simple enough right? I started walking, I was too broke to join a gym at that point. I watched work out videos on my laptop and did them in the living room. During the second separation – we lived at the house and had a home gym. I was out there often, I fought my depression with working out – it kept my mind busy.

I am stronger than what tried to kill me.

Just like the Kelly Clarkson’s song, “What doesn’t kill me, only makes me stronger..” I went through hell and survived. I still battle with somethings these days, but not nearly as bad as it was. People tell me, “I don’t know how you do it, I would of given up already..” I have learned about forgiveness, patience, and what worth fighting for. Life is worth fighting for. Fake it til you make it. I guess I am still faking it, lol because I haven’t made it yet.

De-junk your life.

Get rid of those toxic relationships, toxic friendships. Stop drinking, stop destroying your life before it’s too late. Trust me, it’s not easy, but it’s worth it. It’s worth every penny of it. Go through the stuff in your house/room. Have a yard sale or donate it. De-junking your life inside and out. I say this, but I need to do this myself. But over the next month a friend has told me she would help me with this. So there’s that.

Who your real friends are.

My family wasn’t there in the beginning, no one believe me. When I told them my husband wanted to leave me. “You mean him? he’s such a great guy..” Legit, it was like that until we got back together and the same thing happened again. However, I had my one best friend – who’s year was just as much crap as mine. We both kept each other a float. She saved my life and I did the same for her. A bond like that can’t be broken. Everyone else never really knew what was going on, until after the fact.

What’s one thing you learned from hitting rock bottom?