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How to Break Bad Habits by Simulating Rock Bottom

You decide where you make your turn-around. Here’s how to do it sooner.

Ryan Engelstad
Better Humans
9 min readNov 17, 2017

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There is a common misconception about addiction recovery that a person must “hit rock bottom” before they can change; that they must come to a completely humiliating and dangerous way of life before their motivation to change will be strong enough. The idea is that often people don’t decide to make changes in their lives until things have gotten “bad enough” for them.

This was illustrated in the recent film “To the Bone” when the main character, Eli left an inpatient program for anorexics. The doctor’s comment about her leaving was:

“The problem with treatment for some of these kids is that we won’t let them hit bottom. It’s too hard to watch. But for Eli, the bottom is critical.”

Now there is some merit to the idea that “we”—the families and support systems of people struggling with addiction—have a role to play in this process. But I hate this lazy view on behavior change and want to present another option here.

As a therapist, I see people who need to change to avoid catastrophe. Some of them want to. Some of them don’t. You might find this also in your own life. You know you need to make a change, but you in some ways you enjoy your bad…

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Better Humans
Better Humans

Published in Better Humans

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Ryan Engelstad
Ryan Engelstad

Written by Ryan Engelstad

Therapist writing about mental health and behavior change. Check out my podcast, Pop Psych 101: https://www.poppsych101.com

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