“But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth’s description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster.” (Foreword to the Second Edition)
“By going back in our own drinking histories, we could show that years before we realized it we were out of control, that our drinking even then was no mere habit, that it was indeed the beginning of a fatal progression. To the doubters we could say, ‘Perhaps you’re not an alcoholic after all. Why don’t you try some more controlled drinking, bearing in mind meanwhile what we have told you about alcoholism?’ This attitude brought immediate and practical results. It was then discovered that when one alcoholic had planted in the mind of another the true nature of his malady, that person could never be the same again. Following every spree, he would say to himself, ‘Maybe those AAs were right …’ After a few such experiences, often years before the onset of extreme difficulties, he would return to us convinced. He had hit bottom as truly as any of us. John Barleycorn himself had become our best advocate.” (Step One, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions)
The fatality of alcoholism and the ever-present potential activation of an unstoppable process resulting in death are quite distinct from emotional pain and desperation.
One’s actual problems and the emotions one feels (pain and desperation) are two distinct questions. Get these muddled and the focus of one’s efforts will be muddled, too.
A true rock-bottom is the cold realisation of the nature of alcoholism, not panic or sadness.