Dallas Bragg breaks down the stories people tell themselves after relapse: that it means failure, that addiction is incurable, that they must restart their count. These narratives trap you in a cycle. Instead, treat relapse as a learning spiral that moves you forward.
If I relapse, I am a failure. If I relapse, I'm not doing the program correctly. If I relapse, I have to start counting my days over. If I relapse, I'm separate and not as good as those people who can stay sober. If I relapse, there's inherently something wrong with me. If I relapse, I have a disease that can't be cured. If I relapse, I'm in the same place in recovery that I was a year ago. If you are buying into any of these narratives about yourself, then you're going to continue to prove those narratives true. And that's what gets you stuck in a relapse cycle. Instead, relapse should be an upward spiral. Every time you relapse, you learn something new, which should put you on a trajectory upward. I want you to pay attention to the narrative you're telling yourself. What have you accepted that is true? And I want you to flip it. The key to recovery is self-empowerment.
