Dallas Bragg explains how gay men in recovery often demonize their urge to use meth instead of acknowledging it as part of themselves. His approach treats that impulse with compassion and respect rather than rejection, which he says reduces isolation and strengthens recovery.
So I want the listeners to hear this, that no matter what that shadow is, respecting it and having compassion for it is basically respecting and having compassion for yourself because it's an aspect of you. And what I see often is we're so used to rejecting ourselves as gay men and hating ourselves is that we hate those parts. And I, in my program, we talk about the part that wants to use. There is an aspect of me that wants to use meth. But so, so often we reject it, we hate it, we ridicule it, we isolate it, we put it down, right? We, we, we say it's the, it's the demon on my back. You know, we fight it. We're only saying that about ourselves. And I feel like it doesn't get you anywhere. But we're, but we want to be so negative about addiction, right? That it's bad, bad, bad. It's crystal meth. But this is a part of you. It's an aspect of you. So I, I, I love that you said to respect that shadow first. Yeah.
