[drewcoo]

When we can't deal with issues openly, especially mental health issues, we often see the "tough" route promoted.

That would be "rock bottom" in your anecdote.

Consider how PTSD used to be treated back when it was "shell shock" and considered a personal moral failure. People were told there was nothing wrong. Many of those people "recovered," too. But was that the right way to treat people facing real problems?