Dallas Bragg compares your brain to a social media algorithm: every thought and action is a 'like' that trains it to serve up more of the same. Dwelling on shame after a relapse or chasing dopamine from meth or sex reinforces neural pathways that flood your life with similar cues. To break the cycle, you have to consciously feed your brain new, healthier inputs.
Just as social media algorithms learn from what you click on, your brain learns from what you feed it. Each thought, each action and choice is like clicking like on content. You'll get more of what you engage with. And just like an ad or a reel or a TikTok video, the longer you stay with the energy, the longer you watch it, the more you tell your algorithm, I like this, I want more of this. For example, dwelling on the shame of relapse. The longer you watch that ad, the more you're going to get shame-inducing ads in your life, right? And guess what? That ad shows up on other platforms. It's just like clicking on an Amazon product and suddenly that same product shows up on your Facebook. You've spent time watching the relapse ad, so that shame shows up in all areas of your life. Your work, your family, and your social life. Your subconscious algorithm has been trained on the intense dopamine rush of crystal meth, the validation from sexual encounters while you're high, the temporary relief from emotional pain, the false sense of confidence and connection, etc. To rewrite that algorithm, so you might consider this.
