Dallas Bragg argues shame drives addiction: when you label yourself weak or a failure, you reinforce an identity that fuels the cycle. The escape from feeling fundamentally bad is the addictive behavior itself. Breaking free means dropping judgment and offering yourself compassion instead.
Every time you shame yourself or get shamed for using, every I'm so weak, I'm such a failure, you're actually feeding that core identity that drives the behavior. Judgment is the fuel of addiction, not the solution to it. Think about this. When you feel fundamentally bad about yourself, what do you naturally want to do? You want to escape that feeling. And what's the most reliable escape route you can think of? Exactly. The revolutionary approach is to remove judgment from the equation entirely. It doesn't mean accepting harmful behaviors. It means understanding that the behavior exists for a reason, and that reason deserves compassion, not total criticism from you.
