Weaponizing Guilt Against Addicts

Hinzugefügt: 2026-04-28

[00:00:00]Guilt, shame, grief, regret is the biggest anchor we carry. It's the lowest conscious state. So, we weaponize more guilt and shame against the addict, and we do it all the time. We think that's what we need. We say it to each other.

[00:00:12]You got to play the tape through. Feel that guilt. You got to keep it green.

[00:00:16]You got to remember where you came from.

[00:00:17]You got to hold on to it. Because the more you tell yourself an addict, the more likely you are to not use in that moment. Anybody with a [ __ ] two brain cells that's willing to think this through with me knows what I'm saying sounds pretty [ __ ] accurate. Then why the [ __ ] have we built an entire culture around weaponizing the biggest enemy addicts have, fear, guilt, shame, grief, regret. We tell them we need more of it.

[00:00:41]We weaponize it against them. We tell them to hold on to it, to play it through all the time. So that, right, once an addict, always an addict.

[00:00:47]Really? Do we know that's true? So, there's not many, many addicts throughout human history who healed themselves and got really active lifestyles, who started showing up, who had spiritual awakening. They created neuroplasticity. They fixed the neurotransmitter function. They opened their heart wall. They learned to get control of the nervous system. They learned what choice was. They healed themselves. They drank the drugs no compulsion. That didn't happen? It's probably happened millions times. But we don't believe in that anymore. That's why we've done this. We don't believe in the 12 steps anymore? Holy [ __ ] Like, well, you go to a meeting to be inspired for spiritual awakening? Nobody has ever said that's why they go to meetings. I mean, okay, I've maybe heard it like five times in 24 years and thousands and thousands of meetings and thousands and thousands of clients that I've asked.

[00:01:32]I've maybe heard it a couple of times.

[00:01:33]And everyone's like, "Oh, yeah, well, well."

[00:01:36]That's kind of the whole point, man.

[00:01:37]Like, honesty is the principle behind the first step. And and most people I know in recovery will tell me they don't even lie to themselves anymore. I never lie. What? What? Do you realize how weird that is to say to somebody that's on a spiritual path? You know what that tells me, right? If you tell me you don't lie to yourself, and you have like a self-destructive lifestyle. You eat [ __ ] You don't take care of yourself. You don't exercise appropriately. Smoke. Right? All all this [ __ ] And you're going to tell me you don't lie to yourself. It's wild, man. What it tells me is you don't even know how full of [ __ ] you are. You haven't even begun the process of awakening. It's the principle behind the first step. And everybody thinks it's about the substance. The first thing a person must do is is get past the denial of their addiction, for sure. But I don't know people that have problems with that.

[00:02:24]That's so [ __ ] rare. Honesty is about, why do you get angry at your partner for being your partner? Why do you get angry at your loved ones for loving you? Why do you get overwhelmed with traffic? Why do you not eat the way you know you should? Why do you make excuses? Why do you procrastinate? It's all lies. It's what the ego does. And it's not It knows us better than we know ourselves cuz our hippocampus remembers everything through our life, and our sensory input and the way we process those emotional experiences just create our beliefs. It's not who we are.

[00:02:54]It's just the stories we believe.