A rock bottom moment isn't required to get sober, although it obviously helps.

We have no control over what will be our rock bottom, and often we stack consequences

for a long time before enough is finally enough.

In this episode, I discuss what to do if you haven't had a rock bottom yet.

So you'll learn three key things that I've noticed that dablers do that prevent them from getting sober for good.

And what I would suggest doing if you haven't hit your enough point yet.

And before we dig in, I'd like to take a moment to thank my sponsors who made this episode possible.

We all convince ourselves that we're not bad enough of a drinker to need to quit or that it's a

problem that we can deal with a later. It feels like a rock bottom moment is required for change,

but then some of us have moments that could be a rock bottom, like getting a DUI, having a health problem, or harming an

important relationship, and we still continue drinking saying it's not that bad. There's a popular

saying in the sober community that rock bottom is where you stop digging. And that's absolutely

true, but we all have a different threshold for where enough is enough. How much

misery can you handle before you give up? That invisible line is your rock bottom. Absolute life

destruction isn't what happens for most of us. Some people have an exceptionally high threshold

for how much suffering they can handle, which could be for a variety of different reasons. Mental health conditions, being physically dependent on alcohol, financial limitations, or a lack of support, history of trauma, all sorts of things. Other people will simply wake up one day with

another hangover and say, that's it. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to them, but things

have likely been adding up for a while, and then that one hangover pushed them too far. In episode

200, I told the story of my greatest shame, and that should have been my rock bottom

moment, but then I continued drinking for another 11 months saying that was a one-time thing

and making a bunch of excuses for it. Downplaying is something that I talked about in episode 282. We massage the consequences in our minds,

so they seem like a one-time occurrence, or we blame other people or external circumstances for it,

...