Descent

The period in which things got worse before they got better.

When you hit a lower point than you had expected to reach.

A fall from a position you had worked hard to hold.

The downward arc that felt, at the time, like it would not stop.

When you lost something you had counted on and did not recover quickly.

A slide into difficulty that began with small decisions.

The year or years when nearly everything went wrong at once.

When you descended into something — addiction, despair, failure — and found the bottom.

A professional or personal collapse that had to be lived through.

The humbling that arrived when pride had been high.

When the structure you had built came apart and you had to witness it.

A descent that was necessary before you could begin again.

The period of diminishment that preceded renewal.

When you went under and had to figure out how to surface.

A loss of status, health, money, or love that required rebuilding.

The lowest point that later turned out to have been the turning point.

When you could not stop the slide and had to reach the ground.

A darkness that required endurance rather than solutions.

The hardest passage through which everything that followed had to pass.

When going down was the only way to find what would let you come back up.