Few places suck readers in like a rock bottom. The media is full of stories of people waking up to find themselves without their job, their home, their family—potentially every marker of security and respect—and then clawing their way back. Why? We are not just voyeurs slowing down at a car crash but storytellers entranced by a strong dramatic arc. We are explorers who want to know what knowledge our fellow travelers have gleaned after crossing the abyss.

But not everyone is enamored with this trope. “The concept of ‘rock bottom’ should be retired from usage,” says Peg O’Connor, author of Life on the Rocks: Finding Meaning in Addiction and Recovery. The idea of “hitting bottom” is particularly entrenched in the fields of addiction psychology and treatment, and yet it i...