What is "rock bottom" for you?

[Godlovesmetwo]

I notice some smokers don't even quit, even when their health deteriorates. You can hear them coughing.
For me, because I am such a hypochondriac, health or losing it is a big wake up call. I don't like scoring badly in blood tests for instance.
But losing home too. That would just kill me. I would be shattered.
Losing partner? Gutted. Absolutely gutted.
Is this topic too morbid?

 

[LaSorcia]

Praise the Lord, my rock bottom is being able to see that I'm in a place where my rock bottom might actually have the potential to become a reality.

 

[LaSorcia]

The bad news is that it might be likely that I am moving towards that actual rock bottom without realizing it. Isn't this true for most of us? Praying for wisdom and discernment is so important, and a prayer that is guaranteed to get answered: James 1:5

 

[archer75]

My rock bottom is / would be realizing that I'm finally in such desperate straits that I look back with fondness on the times when suicide looked like a way out.

 

[LaSorcia]

My rock bottom is / would be realizing that I'm finally in such desperate straits that I look back with fondness on the times when suicide looked like a way out.

Oh dear, I never thought of that until I read what you wrote. That would be pretty horrific. I attempted suicide as an abused teen, and I now would likely never do that. I can't imagine suffering so much that I'd want to, but felt that door was shut. I sincerely ask the mercy of God that you (or any of us) ever get to that point. And if we do, that God intervenes in a miraculous way.

 

[Fuchsia']

I have been blessed that throughout the low periods of my life God has sent someone in my life to help pull me through even if I didn't realize it. Life is constant up and down so I am blessed that I have a Savior who is looking out for me.

 

[rockytopva]

COPD - Not that I have it... I have noted that many smoke even after getting this terrible disease.

 

[Martinius]

Don't know what my rock bottom would be until I have been there. There have been very low moments in my life, but in each case it could have been worse. I imagine that losing someone very close to me, especially suddenly, would bring me down. That did happen years ago, and it was one of the most traumatic times of my life. Rock Bottom for me could also happen by being in a desperate situation and seeing no way out, a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness.

 

[quatona]

I notice some smokers don't even quit, even when their health deteriorates. You can hear them coughing.

That would be me.

 

[LaSorcia]

That would be me.

I was a diehard smoker. I started at 13. I managed to keep it to half a pack for at least 10 years. Then it increased significantly. God eventually told me that I had to quit or I would kill myself.

As I wrote in another thread, I did quit, but it was actually more difficult than natural childbirth. But fasting is a church tradition. Fasting doesn't always mean going without food. That's for those folks who have a high baseline. I once asked God why He didn't call me to fast, and the Spirit answered that he did, but he was calling me to fast from my excesses. I had to do that before I could ever hope to reach what was considered Christian fasting.

I would strongly urge to to switch to nicotine gum or vaping. Not to make a switch permanently, but as a step on the road to being free from it. God knows that I'm a baby and I like the bandaid pulled off slowly, so that's how He lead me. With gum or vaping, yes, you still get nicotine, but without the carbon monoxide and other bad chemicals you get with smoking cigarettes. There will be some withdrawal, but it can be bearable. Green tea is something I found effective to cope with it.

If you choose the gum route, you can start at 4mg and work down to 2, and then cut the gum in half until you are free. If you vape, you can buy lower and lower concentrations until you either stop or have a 0% nicotine vape juice.

I pray for God's help with you wanting to quit and quitting.

 

[quatona]

I was a diehard smoker. I started at 13. I managed to keep it to half a pack for at least 10 years. Then it increased significantly. God eventually told me that I had to quit or I would kill myself.

As I wrote in another thread, I did quit, but it was actually more difficult than natural childbirth. But fasting is a church tradition. Fasting doesn't always mean going without food. That's for those folks who have a high baseline. I once asked God why He didn't call me to fast, and the Spirit answered that he did, but he was calling me to fast from my excesses. I had to do that before I could ever hope to reach what was considered Christian fasting.

I would strongly urge to to switch to nicotine gum or vaping. Not to make a switch permanently, but as a step on the road to being free from it. God knows that I'm a baby and I like the bandaid pulled off slowly, so that's how He lead me. With gum or vaping, yes, you still get nicotine, but without the carbon monoxide and other bad chemicals you get with smoking cigarettes. There will be some withdrawal, but it can be bearable. Green tea is something I found effective to cope with it.

If you choose the gum route, you can start at 4mg and work down to 2, and then cut the gum in half until you are free. If you vape, you can buy lower and lower concentrations until you either stop or have a 0% nicotine vape juice.

I pray for God's help with you wanting to quit and quitting.

This may be valuable advice for any person who actuallly wants to quit smoking.

 

[Mountainmike]

This may be valuable advice for any person who actuallly wants to quit smoking.

That of course is the problem.
" it will never happen to me"

I am not mocking , as an ex smoker but managed to quit whilst living with someone who hasn't quit. I understand.

The potential consequences don't seem that real: but the consequence of giving up is certainly real, unpleasant and immediate.

 

[Galatea]

I already hit rock bottom years ago, so nothing can be so terrible for me, now. I feel like I've been telling so many people about the time in my life when I denounced Christianity and became an atheist for a few months or a year in college. But, praise God- He sent me two people who helped me through that darkest of valleys. Nothing can ever be as bad as that (for me).

 

[LaSorcia]

This may be valuable advice for any person who actuallly wants to quit smoking.

I didn't actually want to quit. I actually hated smoking, but was so used to it and didn't want to feel the withdrawal, as I got seriously depressive symptoms when I attempted, due to having smoked for several decades. I had to cope with a job and a family, and was so afraid I would ruin it all by my attempts at quitting.

But the Spirit told me it was time, and I knew without knowing how or the details, that it would be horrid if I didn't quit. I really felt like chewing on bricks some days; okay, all days, of withdrawal, but God helped me and told me when to drink caffeine or eat sugar to minimize the symptoms. I spent a LOT of time in prayer and supplication. It took about 3 months to be free. It really was horrible, but I can honestly say that God carried a lot of the burden for me.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I'm not sure what rock bottom is for me. I thought I was close a few times. I thought I was close a couple of times as a child, even.

When I was about 21 and my husband was in an accident, then moved to a faraway hospital for testing, and called to tell me they thought he had a brain tumor (and in that case wouldn't have been expected to live), was getting discharged as a result. And so my job laid me off too. Not a very good day ...

When I'd been struggling very hard to keep my bills paid, had no money for food or holidays, was getting my utilities cut off, and my ex kept coming up with excuses or just not answering the door, keeping me from seeing my daughter for months, even though we were supposed to be shared custody. I "wrestled with God" over that one.

He had one bigger in store though. My ex and his live-in moved without telling me and for almost three years I didn't know where my daughter was or if she was ok, and the last things she had said to me were very hateful because of things she had been told.

But God restores. Maybe not always in this life, but He did for me.

Maybe all of that is why being diagnosed with cancer wasn't as bad as it could have been, though I will admit I cried that day.

Rock bottom? I don't know. Wherever it is, it's worse than all that. But I don't want to find it. All I know is that God can get me through anything, though it might not seem to make any sense at all why I have to go through it. I think it keeps me closer to Him though. Maybe I'm afraid to wander too far away, in case a worse thing might happen and catch me facing it alone. But it seems like I also don't worry much overall about such things happening.

I've never smoked. I'm allergic to tobacco. Good thing - I have an idea I might not have been in a good position to be able to quit.

 

[LaSorcia]

I'm not sure what rock bottom is for me. I thought I was close a few times. I thought I was close a couple of times as a child, even.

When I was about 21 and my husband was in an accident, then moved to a faraway hospital for testing, and called to tell me they thought he had a brain tumor (and in that case wouldn't have been expected to live), was getting discharged as a result. And so my job laid me off too. Not a very good day ...

When I'd been struggling very hard to keep my bills paid, had no money for food or holidays, was getting my utilities cut off, and my ex kept coming up with excuses or just not answering the door, keeping me from seeing my daughter for months, even though we were supposed to be shared custody. I "wrestled with God" over that one.

He had one bigger in store though. My ex and his live-in moved without telling me and for almost three years I didn't know where my daughter was or if she was ok, and the last things she had said to me were very hateful because of things she had been told.

But God restores. Maybe not always in this life, but He did for me.

Maybe all of that is why being diagnosed with cancer wasn't as bad as it could have been, though I will admit I cried that day.

Rock bottom? I don't know. Wherever it is, it's worse than all that. But I don't want to find it. All I know is that God can get me through anything, though it might not seem to make any sense at all why I have to go through it. I think it keeps me closer to Him though. Maybe I'm afraid to wander too far away, in case a worse thing might happen and catch me facing it alone. But it seems like I also don't worry much overall about such things happening.

I've never smoked. I'm allergic to tobacco. Good thing - I have an idea I might not have been in a good position to be able to quit.

Oh I'm so sorry for all you've been through (hugs). Your post really shows that it's faith and not circumstances that determine the rock bottom. I am so grateful for your faith and the faith that God gives all Christians. God bless you, Anastasia.

 

[Mountainmike]

One rock bottom for me was a time I owned a sequence of businesses.
Armed robbers burst in , hit me with an axe fortunately the blow was deflected, held a knife to my employees neck, ultimately fleeing with some cash.

For me, the business was never the same I hated going after that , and gave the business away for almost nothing to a competitor to escape , the day I discovered my wife had breast cancer ( she is now fine) - but even that was not the bottom. Read on...

I still kept in touch. I watched my ex employee who was full of life, the soul of aparty, retreat into a shell, panicking at leaving her house even. She never worked again, she was Broken.

The robbers were caught , jailed, and three years later given parole.

They got 6 years , out in 3 , she was sentenced to life because - The day they got out on parole she committed suicide. It was a desparate shock.

My feeling of responsibility for someone that I had employed committing suicide because of what happened in my business, left a period of blackness it took me years to escape. Rock bottom.

And in a way, it has never left,

The feeling of having been responsible for loss of life

By that point I employed many in several businesses, I never employed again, and never had the confidence to start another employing business since. I never will.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Oh I'm so sorry for all you've been through (hugs). Your post really shows that it's faith and not circumstances that determine the rock bottom. I am so grateful for your faith and the faith that God gives all Christians. God bless you, Anastasia.

Thank you, and God bless you too.

You seriously don't have to be sorry though. I have a great deal of peace and joy in my life, and am gradually learning to look to God and truly be grateful in ALL things. There are those also I did not mention, a few worse, most not as bad. Each one has in some way taught me very important spiritual lessons. Priceless lessons, that maybe I could not have learned otherwise. Too bad I'm not an easy student. But if God brings growth or some other benefit that cannot come any other way, then I have to be grateful.

And going through them is not as bad as fearing a thing will happen. It can be bad, but fearing it is worse - or at least has been for me.

Thank you for your kindness though. God be with you!

 

[~Anastasia~]

One rock bottom for me was a time I owned a sequence of businesses.
Armed robbers burst in , hit me with an axe fortunately the blow was deflected, held a knife to my employees neck, ultimately fleeing with some cash.

For me, the business was never the same I hated going after that , and gave the business away for almost nothing to a competitor to escape , the day I discovered my wife had breast cancer ( she is now fine) - but even that was not the bottom. Read on...

I still kept in touch. I watched my ex employee who was full of life, the soul of aparty, retreat into a shell, panicking at leaving her house even. She never worked again, she was Broken.

The robbers were caught , jailed, and three years later given parole.

They got 6 years , out in 3 , she was sentenced to life because - The day they got out on parole she committed suicide. It was a desparate shock.

My feeling of responsibility for someone that I had employed committing suicide because of what happened in my business, left a period of blackness it took me years to escape. Rock bottom.

And in a way, it has never left,

The feeling of having been responsible for loss of life

By that point I employed many in several businesses, I never employed again, and never had the confidence to start another employing business since. I never will.

Honestly, this seems a little unfathomable to me.

It's one thing to face my own problems, or even have to suffer watching a loved one's struggles and suffering.

But to feel directly responsible (whether that is true or not - and from outside reading, it doesn't sound like you're actually responsible) ... but to feel responsible sounds ... difficult to say the least.

I hope you can at least accept forgiveness for this. Lord be merciful to you ...

 

[Mountainmike]

Thanks for the support.

I guess it is PTSD of a sort. You replay it in slow motion in your head for a long time after, wondering if there was more you could have done.

The feeling of responsibility is not rational, it is emotive - I have heard the same thing from others in charge of , but not in control of , events that lead to fatality, you blame yourself.

And when She died , I guess a little of me did too. It is one of the times you ask why such nasty people are able to destroy wonderful people who radiate warmth to all they meet.

I can only resign myself to the hope she is in a better place now.

But for all those who say " if they did it to me I would do XYZ" my answer is you cannot know. One of my managers was a reasonable amateur martial artist , how good I don't know, but she had won titles, and because we handled valuable things and cash , we had training sessions on what to do were we victims of a raid. My manager said she would " sort them out" . In the event, when they came in, she fled behind a locked door, blocking our ability to leave, so myself and the victim were trapped. I don't blame her at all. But you can never know.

Two weeks later my manager left without notice and never returned. It affected us all.

Honestly, this seems a little unfathomable to me.

It's one thing to face my own problems, or even have to suffer watching a loved one's struggles and suffering.

But to feel directly responsible (whether that is true or not - and from outside reading, it doesn't sound like you're actually responsible) ... but to feel responsible sounds ... difficult to say the least.

I hope you can at least accept forgiveness for this. Lord be merciful to you ...