Dallas Bragg explains how guilt and shame affect recovery from methamphetamine addiction. Guilt says you did something wrong; shame says you are wrong. Breaking the shame cycle means writing down your self-talk, naming the emotions, and reframing the story so you can change behavior instead of spiraling deeper.
Knowing the difference between guilt and shame could help you stay abstinent from meth, and here's how. Often men will come to me after using meth and interchange how they are feeling. I feel guilty about this, or I'm feeling shame about this. Here's the distinct difference though. The emotion of guilt shows up as, I have made some decisions that I'm not proud of that go against my values and character. While shame shows up as, I use meth because I'm a bad person, I'm a failure, and I can't do anything right. Guilt then separates your identity from your actions so that you can observe the actions and learn from them. That gives you the fuel to improve. Shame enmeshes your true self with the act of relapse, causing you to be lost in the emotion of shame. And therefore, if you are inherently a bad person, a failure, you are just going to continue to use because a relapser is who you are. Shifting from shame to guilt is a process of becoming a compassionate observer of your behavior instead of identifying with it. The first step is to look at your language, write down your internal dialogue, and begin pinpointing the exact emotions you are feeling and shift more toward guilt.
