Debunking “My Disease” of Addiction.

Hey, Dr. Dallas Bragg here. Thank you for joining me today. I'm going to do a little quick video explaining my view on addiction not being a disease, and I want to start out with a disclaimer saying that these, the views that I express here, are my experience. They come from my individual perspective, and they— I'm open to discussion. I'm open to dialogue, but I'm not coming here to try to poo-poo on any other form of sobriety treatment. I'm just expressing what worked for me in case there's someone else out there who can benefit from this. First of all, here are all of my platforms if you'd like to follow me: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok. And if you would like, please subscribe to this channel now to get more videos and to be notified when I do upload more information. So I have a weekly meditation that I post on here and a weekly video like this one. I'm trying to get to 100 subscribers by the end of July, so it gives me 30 more days. To get about 75, around there, subscribers. I would really like it if you would subscribe. That being said, let's get started. Many 12-step programs would have you believe that addiction is a life sentence. If you are living in constant fear of your, quote, disease taking over, this video is for you. When I say it's a life sentence, my experience has been When I started getting sober, I started going to 12-step meetings, and I found that I would leave them more depressed and wanting to use than before I came. And I didn't understand why. And I kept hearing people refer to their disease, you know, this week my disease really got to me. This week This— my disease was hard on me. And when I was sitting around and listening to the shares, I thought, is this what sobriety is like? Is this what I'm going to live with for the rest of my life, is fighting some disease every single day and then lamenting about it in a group of people once a week, talking about how hard it is? I just couldn't accept that. Not to mention, I had a real problem with saying at the beginning of every meeting, I am an addict. I am is probably the strongest declaration, prayer, and affirmation you can make in the universe. So by saying I am an addict, I'm asking the universe to please keep me there. Please keep giving me, um, evidence that I am an addict. Please give me Barriers and keep me where I am because I am an addict. For me, it just did not sit right with me. Hearing my disease felt like bypassing the healing work of accountability. What I found was that if— for me, it felt like I could blame an outside, an external source for my behavior. If I could say, well, that was just my disease, then it let me off the hook, and then I could be with like-minded people who also were not taking accountability for their daily decisions. Shifting my perspective, I created my own healing journey. I decided to go on my own journey. I decided to figure out how If there was a way that I could live free from cravings, that I could live a life of sobriety without having to think about whether or not I use every day, and how can I live a life where drugs wasn't like the first thing in my mind all the time? Here's a few things that I did. Awaken the imagination. Anchor into the vision of your new life. Dream big to create every aspect of your new identity. Feel the emotion of being that person. What I discovered was the power of imagination. What imagination really is, if you can— if you'll go there with me, it's clairvoyance. When we imagine an outcome, that creates a reality. It puts into motion universal forces That will create that scene and create that vision. It's manifesting. So the problem is that the difficulty, the barrier that a lot of people have and that I had, was imagining what life could be as a sober person. Because where I felt most comfortable, and to be honest, where I was the most seemingly happiest, was as an active addict. of crystal meth. That's the life I knew. That's the life that I kept saying to myself during my addiction, like, I finally found who I am. This is just who I am. I fought it all my life, and this is where I'm happiest. And I made myself believe that, but I couldn't imagine life otherwise. And so I started, um, at the end of the night, Before bed, I would get into kind of a sleepy state, and I would start picturing scenes from a life that I wanted. And I started with my relationships, my kids, my mom, my friends. What kind of friends I wanted. What kind of life would make me happy. Where did I want to be as a sober person? And what kind of job did I want? What What kind of income? What would make me feel the happiest? And so I would create these scenes. I would feel the emotion of being in that scene, and I would hear the conversation, smell sometimes, taste. I would really, as much as possible, go into detail in my imagination what I saw my life being. And it might sound cuckoo, but it, it began something in me that started on that journey. Things started to fall into place. It was, it was a slow process, but now I had a vision, a North Star, something to work toward, something that, that I could return to. And during the day, if I did have a craving or I was feeling down or hopeless, I could take myself back in my imagination To that scene, feel the emotion in my heart, and it would just bring my nervous system back. My mind honestly thought that we were there, so my anxiety would dissipate. And I might— it might have to do that like 2 or 3 times a day, but I had to do it as much as possible just to keep myself balanced and level. Awaken the belief. Allow emotional triggers to occur without suppressing them. Triggers are guideposts to reveal your underlying beliefs. Your beliefs are driving your addiction. What I figured out was, you know, getting rid of the substance was the easy part, because when you get rid of the substance, then you just— you're just a raw nerve. And I do believe that structured weekly, daily meetings like the 90 and 90, they are helpful when you're first getting sober to give you some type of anchor, some type of structure in that buffering transition. So there is a place for that. But for me, I had to figure out what led me here. That wasn't the substance. It started way, way back in my life. And how I got to unravel the beliefs were paying attention to when I was triggered. What made me angry? What made me resentful? What made me anxious, lustful, prideful? You know, any kind of emotion that we classify as negative. I had to begin to pay attention to when my body felt that, where in my body I felt it, and then I could step back. And I learned how to ask, where did you come from, emotion? And when did I first feel you? So if it's anger, for instance, what nuance of anger was this? And when you really ask yourself and you stop Clear your mind with curiosity. The answer is going to come. May not, maybe not the first time, maybe not the second time, but it comes spontaneously from the universe because you are asking your higher self, a higher power if you want to call it that. So I began to unravel. Wow, I have a belief. That people are going to leave me, that people don't like me in general, um, that I'm rejected, that I'm abandoned. I had all these beliefs that were perpetuating themselves, and that led me into addiction because the substance would temporarily take all that away. So Paying attention to the triggers and not suppressing them. Because a lot of people will say, you know, once you feel angry, here are, you know, a bunch of ways to not feel angry anymore. So I do have an 8-step— it's free download— an 8-step quick guide for unraveling a trigger. The link will be in the description if you want to download it, or send me a DM, whatever you want. But this is a compilation of how I was able to unpack triggers, to uncover the beliefs behind them. Those beliefs were driving my life. If I believed that I didn't deserve to be treated correctly in a relationship, then that's why I ended up with the same person over and over who didn't treat me right. It's not that you explicitly state it, it's that it's implicitly running in the back of your mind. Based on some traumatic event or some underlying core trauma that's been happening through your life. It's some work, but it works. Awaken new habits. Overwrite old beliefs to set your life in a new direction. This happens one micro-change at a time. Respond differently to life and you'll have a different life. So this is what I call overwriting. So when you discover what your beliefs are, that's great. And I suggest not spending a lot of time on the cause because for the most part it's going to be family members, mom and dad. It's going to be whatever happened as a child that created these beliefs. That's all in the past though. How do we overwrite that belief? And one thing to do is to respond to your trigger in one different way Each time. So, for instance, if you receive the text from someone who triggers you, instead of texting back, don't. Or instead of texting back something nasty, text something nice. That sounds little, right? But what that does is interrupts the pattern because you're stuck in these patterns. You get the text, you respond, it snowballs into something else, and then you're, you're angry and you're anxious for days. It's, it's a constant wheel that you're stuck on. But if you do one little micro change, it tells the universe and it tells your body, oh, we're doing something different now. You might be wobbly for a bit, but every time you do it, you gain more power. Every time you do it, you gain more self-trust. Every time you do it, that pattern is interrupted and it's going in a different direction. The point of it is, is that you have to do something different if you want different results, if you want your life to go in a different direction. Awaken the mantras. Write mantras to repeat all day, every day. Journal and reflect on these mantras and how your life is evolving. Find a non-judgmental support group to help. In my case, mantras were so helpful. Very simple mantras, mantras that resonate with your heart. So for instance, one of mine has been, I am in control. Four words: I am in control. I am in control. I am in control. I repeat this and I repeat this and I repeat this. And when something comes up, maybe it is a craving, or maybe it is a nasty text. Whatever the trigger is, maybe it's food. I'm in control because ultimately you are in control. The only thing you can control. It's yourself, right? So there's something about saying these mantras over and over, and I go back to the I am. I am is a declaration. It's a prayer. It's a— you're calling out to the universe and you're saying, this is who I am. I am in control. And you may not believe it at first, but you just continue to say it. Some people say fake it till you make it. Some people say be it until you are it. Right? Just say to yourself, I am in control. And little by little, you'll begin to see evidence of that. Because if you think about this, you're on a, you're on a momentum of years of the same, right? The same programming, the same patterns. To change that momentum is like turning the Titanic. It's very slow. It takes patience and consistent daily action. The urge to use the substance can go away. Dig deep to identify, heal, and overwrite old programming. There is freedom available to you. You can live without constant fear of relapse. Addiction doesn't have to be your identity. I want you to embrace your brand new identity. It doesn't include a disease. It doesn't include fear every single day of losing everything through relapse. It doesn't include self-hate or hopelessness. It includes growth, self-love, reconciliation, Accomplishments, contentment, peace, love, empathy, joy. It might be hard to imagine that you can have all those things, but if I can, you can. That being said, I just want to thank you for listening to this video. If you have any questions, comments, please make— put them in the comment section. Send me a DM. I would love to talk with you. I am a life coach now. I do have sobriety clients. If you'd like to talk with me and get started on your sobriety journey and living disease-free, I do offer a free coaching session just so we can get to know one another. Um, just so you can kind of see what my style is. I use a lot of meditation. I use a lot of spiritual guidance in my coaching and a lot of practical advice, everyday advice. So that being said, I want you to have a great day. Peace to you.