Methamphetamine users often relapse on a four-week cycle driven by euphoric recall and physiological buildup around week three. Willpower alone won't break it. The speaker recommends extreme safeguards like surrendering your phone and hourly check-ins, plus mental rehearsal where you imagine using, then insert roadblocks so your mind anticipates the craving.
I just don't understand why it's every 4 weeks I find myself using, and I don't even want to use anymore. Number one, it's called amnesia. Crystal meth causes you to forget the horrible time you had after using. It's called euphoric recall, when you only remember the good. Actually, after a while, even when it stops being good, your mind tells you there's an anticipation factor that it's going to be good. This time. 2, it's a straight-up cycle. You are on a cycle. You are on a 4-week pattern where your brain will begin to prepare itself about 3, 3 and a half weeks in for the use. You're going to have an injection of adrenaline so that you have trouble sleeping. You're going to start having increased triggers, probably using dreams. Your body is preparing itself for the damage you're about to do to it. See, time and time again is that guys are doing The same thing over and over and expecting a different response. If you do the same thing you've always done, you're going to get the same thing you've always got. So when you're coming up on this 4-week cycle, you put in every extreme safeguard you can so that you don't have a choice of whether or not to use. Because especially early on, if you have a choice between anything else and meth, you're going to choose meth. Stay with friends. Have friends stay with you in the bed. Stay with family. Surrender your phone. Have people checking in on you every hour. Whatever it takes to get you through that week and break and interrupt the pattern that you're on subconsciously. Do have to give up some privacy with this particular substance and the nature of it and the nuance of it. It is available 24/7 on your phone, so you can't Just say, I'm gonna use my willpower. Willpower is bullshit. It's a finite amount that you have every day, and it's usually over by the time you're at the, the height of a meth craving. Use your imagination. You're sneaky. Use your imagination and think, if I were to use next week, if I didn't have my phone, if I was staying with mom and I had all these safeguards in place, how would I do it? And then let your mind go into meth mode and start making a plan of how you would use. And then once you have the plan of how you would use, put in every roadblock you can to stop yourself. You break that 4-week cycle, it may be the next week, on the 5th week, could be a little bit harder, but probably not. It's going to be easier because you're going to have some self-trust. You're going to have— you're going to feel empowered. You're going to feel stronger. You're going to see that, hey, maybe I can do this. And then you work on the second 4 weeks. And once you've interrupted that pattern, you've broken that cycle a couple of times, you get some momentum going on, it gets easier and easier. Promise.
