Dallas Bragg describes a method for breaking addiction by treating cravings and urges as separate from your true self. Rather than identifying as an addict, he suggests observing these patterns like a compassionate observer studying lab subjects, which lets you detach from them instead of being controlled by them.
The process of breaking away from your addictive patterns requires you to step out of the voices, step out of the cravings, step out of the emotions, the behaviors, and take the role of compassionate observer. Because none of those things are truly you. A soul doesn't have addictive patterns. A soul doesn't waffle with decisions. It just is. So without getting too much into the woo-woo weeds, which I can do if you want, And if soul is a word that makes you uncomfortable, I'm sorry. Just call it the observer if you want, whatever you want to call it. But when you are observing something, just say you're observing those voices, you can study it, you can manipulate it. It's like being in a lab, right? And most of all, you can detach from it. You must detach from what you think is you and your personality, which is your personal reality. This is why repeating, I'm an addict, can sometimes lead to identification with the concept of what we identify as an addict, whatever that concept is for you. When you attach yourself to a concept, you begin to act the part, and that idea begins to control your life.
