Dallas Bragg spent early recovery oversharing his meth addiction story everywhere, even dating profiles, driven by shame. Seven years sober, he argues that broadcasting your worst self doesn't help you heal. He now introduces himself as recovered, not defined by his past.
You know, we always hear people say, including myself, that we should tell our story regarding our meth use. But what if I told you that sometimes you should keep your story to yourself? In early recovery, I told everyone I knew about my meth use and all of the seedy, shady things I did on it. I would include this shit on my dating profiles as well. I was telling my story from a place of shame and lack of boundaries. When you tell your story from a misguided and unhealthy motivation, You are not helping your recovery. Now, 7 years later, anyone who meets me are meeting the healed version and the recovered version of me. That's who they buy into. So often it isn't important for me to stop and explain to someone, yeah, but also look at the hell I went through. Look at what I did and who I was. Sure, that informed who I am today, but why do we add pressure to ourselves to divulge our past? What is the motivation behind it? To prove to people how bad we were? How flawed we are? To underscore our low self-worth? Ask yourself and stop feeling obligated to tell people who you first meet, especially romantic partners, about your meth story. Share this with somebody who needs to hear it.
