Dallas Bragg argues that 30- or 90-day sobriety goals backfire for people quitting crystal meth, creating pressure that leads to relapse. Instead, set tiny daily wins: turn off your phone at a certain time, block a contact. Small, immediate victories build self-trust and momentum.
Here's what I want you to stop doing if you're trying to get sober from crystal meth. Stop setting goals for yourself. What I mean by that is when you say, I want to be sober for 30 days, if I could just make it to 90 days, you are putting undue pressure on yourself. You're setting expectations for yourself, and you're setting yourself up for failure, especially if every other 90 days you typically relapse. You are subconsciously going to repeat the same pattern. Instead, just set a goal for today. Something manageable, something doable. Like, I'm going to turn my phone off after 5 o'clock. Or, I'm going to block that person that I know is going to be hitting me up about 8 o'clock tonight. Do something that you can begin to show yourself that you are trustworthy and can follow through. First, getting sober, you have to set really tiny, small, manageable goals. So you can have a daily win. When you have a daily win, you can anchor into that celebration and say, I won today. And you take that and you go into the next day. You have to take it as a process.
