# Does the Big Book say you have to "hit bottom"?

**In short:**
- The phrases "hit bottom" and "rock bottom" are not in the Big Book's 1939 program text, pages 1 to 164. "Hit bottom" appears in personal stories and in today's introduction to Part II, which says its writers "didn't wait to hit bottom" (p. 279).
- The 1939 text never says you must lose everything. What it does insist on is the admission behind the phrase: that you "fully concede to our innermost selves" you're an alcoholic (p. 30). It says most alcoholics "have to be pretty badly mangled" before they start to solve their problems (p. 43), and its own example, Fred, had felt "only the first nip of the wringer" (p. 43).
- Bill W. wrote in 1957 that newcomers did have to "hit bottom emotionally," but not every possible bottom. In the early 1940s A.A. began "raising the bottom" for milder cases (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).

## What the search found

All our sources were searched for "hit bottom," "hitting bottom," "rock bottom," "raise the bottom," "high bottom," "low bottom" and "bottom" alone.

In the program text (pp. 1–164), "bottom" turns up only in other senses: Langley's flying machine at "the bottom of the Potomac River" (p. 51), and thanking God "from the bottom of our heart" (p. 75).

In the personal stories (fourth edition):
- "Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three" (Part I), set in 1935: "I was willing to admit to myself that I had hit bottom" (p. 187).
- The introduction to Part II, "They Stopped in Time," describes members who had seldom lost health, business, family or friends (p. 279). Its summary in their words: "We didn't wait to hit bottom because, thank God, we could see the bottom" (p. 279).
- Other stories use it in their own ways: "Ninety days sober cleared my thinking enough to make me realize I'd hit bottom" (p. 314); a member told another, "You hit bottom when you stop digging" (p. 325); "That point is different for everyone" (p. 425).

## What the 1939 text says

**The admission is required.** "We learned that we had to fully concede to our innermost selves that we were alcoholics. This is the first step in recovery" (p. 30). The delusion that we're like other people "has to be smashed" (p. 30).

**How you get there isn't fixed.** The book doesn't diagnose anyone: "We do not like to pronounce any individual as alcoholic, but you can quickly diagnose yourself" (p. 31). It suggests trying some controlled drinking (pp. 31–32), or trying to stay off liquor for a year (p. 34).

**Many have to suffer first, but the book's own example didn't lose much.** Fred, the accountant in Chapter 3, had a fine home, a good income and a happy family. He was in hospital for the first time with a bad case of the jitters (p. 39). After one more spree he conceded he was licked, and recovered (pp. 40–43). The book's comment: "He had felt only the first nip of the wringer. Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems" (p. 43).

**The helper works with hopelessness, and sometimes has to wait.** Chapter 7 tells a member to find drinkers who want to stop (pp. 89–90) and to talk about the hopelessness of alcoholism from his own experience (p. 92). "The more hopeless he feels, the better" (p. 94). If a man isn't interested, you may have to drop him "until he changes his mind. This he may do after he gets hurt some more" (p. 95). Left alone, he "may soon become convinced that he cannot recover by himself" (p. 96).

**Young people are warned, not written off.** Several of the early members were thirty or younger and "found themselves as helpless as those who had been drinking twenty years" (p. 33). The book says it sees potential alcoholics among the young, "But try and get them to see it!" (p. 34).

So the 1939 text expects an alcoholic to reach a point of real defeat about his drinking. It doesn't call that a "bottom," it doesn't set a level of loss, and it shows a man who got there early.

## What the later books say (dated)

**Bill W., 1957.** Writing about the years 1941–1945, Bill says A.A. began to succeed "with milder alcoholics and even some potential alcoholics" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). His account:
- "Of course it was necessary for these types of newcomers to hit bottom emotionally" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).
- "But we found they did not have to hit every possible bottom there was in order to admit that they were licked" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).
- A.A. developed "a conscious technique of 'raising the bottom' and hitting them with it" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). When a mild case became convinced he already had the main symptoms of alcoholism, that was usually enough.

**Dr. Harry Tiebout, 1955.** The psychiatrist told A.A.'s St. Louis convention that he first heard from Bill and the early members "of the need to hit bottom" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957), and came to see hitting bottom as the point where an alcoholic stops fighting and surrenders. He called the change in emphasis, from hitting bottom to surrender and ego reduction, something he came to over his first five or six years with A.A. (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).

**Pass It On (1984)** says that in the early New York days, around 1939–40, Bill and Hank believed a drunk had to be at "absolute rock bottom physically, spiritually, and financially" (*Pass It On*, 1984), and turned away prospects who still had jobs and families. The same passage says the newcomer still had to want to stop drinking, and that they soon learned to stop predicting who would recover.

The Big Book itself took in the change in 1955: the second edition divided the stories into the three parts used now (Preface, p. xii), and Part II, "They Stopped in Time," is for members who came before serious harm was done (p. 279).

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 3, "More About Alcoholism" (pp. 30–43): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt3.pdf
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (pp. 89–96): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- Personal stories, Part II, "They Stopped in Time," with its introduction (p. 279): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partII.pdf
- *A.A. Comes of Age* and *Pass It On* are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, whole fourth-edition text (searched) | — | 1939 text; fourth edition 2001 |
| Chapters 3 and 7 | 30–43, 89–96 | 1939 |
| Introduction to Part II, "They Stopped in Time" | 279 | in today's (fourth) edition; Part II began with the second edition, 1955 (Preface, p. xii) |
| Personal stories | 187, 314, 325, 425 | fourth edition (2001); "Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three" describes 1935 |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* (Bill W.; Dr. Harry Tiebout's 1955 talk) | — | 1957; after 1950 |
| *Pass It On* | — | 1984; after 1950 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition.

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, A.A. Comes of Age and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.*