Dallas Bragg says relapse happens when you demonize the part of yourself that wants to use, which triggers self-hatred and makes you identify as a meth user. Instead, he argues for having a compassionate conversation with that part to understand what it actually needs.
Here is one reason you are continuing to relapse, and that is that you have to realize that you are here in the middle. You have a part of you that wants to use meth, and you have a part of you that doesn't want to use meth. You are both of these parts. You will oscillate between them like a figure 8 every day, maybe all day. You're going to be listening to this part sometimes and this part sometimes. When you relapse, what happens is often is that you will begin to hate the part of you that wants to use, the part of you that's driving you to use. You demonize it. You call it the devil. When will I ever get this demon off my back, this monkey off my back? How will I ever escape the grips of addiction? That part is still you. So when you hate the part of you that uses, you hate yourself. So I hate the part of me that wants to use, meaning I hate me. If I hate me, I identify with the part that uses. All of a sudden, I am a meth user. You are not a meth user. Part of you wants to use for a particular reason. And when you hate yourself, And when you get into this cycle of demonizing that part, you're missing out on the conversation with that part to find out what it really needs. And when you identify as a meth user, guess what? You're going to relapse. You're just going to use again because why not? That's who you are.
