Have you ever hit Rock bottom? What are the signs you’ve hit rock bottom and how do you bounce back?

It could be depression or getting to a helpless state of addiction and it doesn’t feel like there’s hope.

That’s rock bottom, when you feel like you’ve had it up to here ‘cause you mad enough to scream, but you sad enough to tear.’ Eminem – Rock bottom

The point is you don’t have to wait until you hit rock bottom before making a turn around.

Whether your rock bottom is self-inflicted or by accident; if you use the opportunity as a learning experience; you could come out a whole lot better than before you ever did.

Rock bottom will teach you lessons meaning

Rock bottom will teach you lessons the mountain tops never could!

It becomes an opportunity to build a solid foundation to build your life.

Rock bottom can be a reflection of who you really are and those around you

Your faith, character and values manifest as well as those around you when you hit rock bottom; you see who’s really there for you.

“Real is who is sitting next to you at rock bottom.” – Anonymous.

What does it mean to be at rock bottom?

A person’s rock bottom is when they have hit an emotional, physical, or financial low that they never thought possible.

Rock bottom can be a point of complete ruin or complete turnaround in an aspect of one’s life. It’s usually a smash people tend never to forget it.

Sometimes, it comes like a shocker and totally unexpected e.g. the death of a loved one from accident or sudden illness, or getting fired from a job for no justifiable reason.

The unexamined life is not worth living 

Its important to constantly reevaluate your life on any aspect you feel is dwindling down especially to a point where you think you no longer have control.

Sometimes we need to hit rock bottom or feel super low to wake up. But when we weigh the consequences, you realize you didn’t have to go through all the pain.

Signs you’ve hit rock bottom

Chances are that before you hit rock bottom there were red flags and warning signs all over you could hardly ignore.

One may experience multiple signs of rock bottom before finally hitting their true lowest point. Don’t ignore the red flags!

• Slipping back into old habits –  falling back into old patterns you’ve previously overcome.
• Lack of focus and attention to details at work
• Poor financial decisions e.g terrible spending habits, uncontrolled debt, losing everything important to you
• Emotional problems
• Depression
• Withdrawal – becoming estranged from friends and family
• Intense Anger
• Lack of interest in anything
• Lack of purpose and satisfaction

Hitting rock bottom depression

Is a kind of depression filled with Hopelessness. Feeling like there is no way out and lack of joy in what you used to enjoy.

Everybody warned her about her bad spending habits before she found herself completely broke to the extent of sleeping on the street with nothing but debt to her name.

Nobody leaves the lowest point of their lives by accident.

To be honest, as an avid reader, I’ve always believed that 90% of our problems are as a result of ignorance and misinformation which is true to an extent.

But no matter how much you know, if you’re not willing to act especially change your habits don’t be surprised how much you keep falling and even get to rock bottom.

We can only start to improve when we start making efforts to do so.

Whatever Rock Bottom is for you, it is a place you don’t want to be and the sooner you start getting out of it, the better.

One may reach rock bottom and find the strength to start rebuilding their life, or they may continue to spiral downwards.

There got to be a shift in what you choose to tolerate no more. That’s when you make that decision for a change. When you realize nobody is coming to save you.

The key is to make the decision when you still have a chance. Not waiting for life circumstances to force you towards making this change.

Repeated actions form into habits – so decide to create healthy habits and routines that lead you closer to your goals rather than create stress and guilt.

10 Practical Strategies to Bounce back from Rock Bottom

1. Make a decision today

Decide the consequence of a staying at rock-bottom is not worth the feeling of hopelessness or any short term pleasure (addictions).

Just like the Prodigal son (in the Bible) decided it was better to be a slave to his father than remain hopeless in a foreign land – he made a decision and acted right away.

2) Take control of your mind

Mindset is everything.

Every single time you sacrifice your energy for 5 minutes random pleasure, health to a bunch of crap meal, say yes when you don’t want to. What comes to your mind?

Its all a mindset game. How you view failure? Picking yourself up? Making plans. Disappearing when you need to.

Are you going to take control of your thoughts and mindset or would you still wait for someone to come save you?

3) Make a plan to bounce back from rock bottom 

Once you’re feeling more stable, sit down and create a plan for moving forward. This can include short-term and long-term goals.

Steve Harvey talks about a time he was fully down (unemployed and broke). He had a friend that decide to not just check up on him but get him back up.

Every single day he would call him at 5:30 on the dot. “Steve, this is John Walker, its going to be a great day, how you feeling? He’d hung up. Steve would reply on a low and depressed tone – nothing. He had zero motivation and expected nothing from life.

He did this for 37 days straight until it finally rang a bell on Steve Harvey’s head – to wake up, change his attitude and set a plan for the day. No more depressed tone. No more giving excuses. He had to take responsibility, make a plan and create his future.

Know what you want to improve in your life, sit down and make a plan of action with specific goals and deadlines.

4) Create and stick to healthy routines

Start forming right habits that would help you get back up and creating healthy routines such as morning routines that kick starts your day for winning.

Some days will be better than others, but don’t get discouraged if you have a few bad ones. Just keep taking small steps forward and eventually you’ll get where you want to be.

5) Step up your knowledge

Fill up your mind with the right information always. Even the Bible acknowledges that “faith cometh by hearing.

Why do successful people read books, create and listen to podcasts and audiobooks over entertainment most of the time?

They want to increase their knowledge and become students of life rather than blockheads living on past information.

6) Learn how to handle stress better

Exercise, upgrading your diet, breathing exercises, taking a break practicing gratitude etc can all help you deal with stress better.

7) Get better perspectives and associate with Quality people 

Travel if you need to. Read wide. Build your faith. Learn from your mistakes and use them as motivation to improve.

If you’ve already hit rock bottom – don’t try to do it all at once. You need to give yourself time to grieve and process what has happened. Trying to take on too much too soon will only make things harder.

Look around you – who do you associate yourself with most of the times? Are they living on their edge, facing their fears or playing comfortable with life with all sorts of cheap dopamine? Hard times will always reveal true friends. Association influences how much you can prevent or leave rock bottom.

8) Have an accountability partner/Support system

Whether it’s friends, family, a professional therapist, having people you can rely on will be crucial during this tough time.

Invest in a coach earlier than you need to. Don’t forget to build good relationships with safe people.

9) Identify your Triggers, Avoid them and Choose discipline

Realize that you’re going to go through tough times in life and decide not to make the same mistakes twice. Build your self discipline – as discipline is a skill you can develop and master over time. What are the things that set you off and make you feel worse? Avoid them if possible, or find healthier coping mechanisms for dealing with them.

10) Appreciate the little things

Once you leave your darkest moments you tend not to take for granted the little things you were ignoring. Love this ideas list from Craig today on how his perspective changed after coming out of prison.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and the first step is to get the right attitude.

YOU are responsible for the condition that YOU are in.

I’m grateful for the times I hit rock bottom because it taught me that I could always bounce back.

— Dan Go (@FitFounder) September 9, 2021

What to do when you reach rock bottom?

It doesn’t matter whether it’s in your health, attitudes, relationships, or battle with any form of addiction such as pornography, alcoholism.

The power still lies in our hands

We can take back control of what we put in our bodies (healthwise), what we say, how we say it and act (attitude), regain our willpower (towards addictions), restore or end toxic ones (in our relationships).

Never quit.

trust yourself.

like, really trust yourself. don’t just say that you do. act like it.

when you hit rock bottom, and have no idea what’s next, take a deep breath and remember that you’re more than capable of handling anything that life throws at you. trust yourself.

— let my people glo ✨ (@MichellCClark) October 19, 2021

CONCLUSION

The key is not to ignore the signs when you’ve hit rock bottom so you can bounce back faster.

Rock bottom is different for everyone, but it is always a difficult and painful experience. It could have been worse.

Sometimes you think you’ve hit rock bottom several times before until when you “really” hit rock bottom.

You can still turn your situation into a positive light even if you’re at rock bottom.

Once you get out of this phase, it makes you realize that there’s a lot of beauty around the world – every day and to enjoy little things.