I’ve seen people in recovery do this—say, “I am an addict.”

It’s like, all right mate, you don’t need to boast about it. You know what I mean?

Fair enough that you accept yourself as you are, but also…you kind of sound like you’re bragging at this point.

I see this all the time with neurodivergent people:

They come up with a big list—it’s almost like they’ve got all these qualifications: Asperger’s, ADHD, insecure anxious attachment. They just come up with this receipt of all the diagnoses they’ve picked up. They sound like a first-year psychology student.

Suddenly every little habit, tick, and trait they have gets labelled as autistic.

“I always like my toast perfectly cut in half.”
“That’s because I’m autistic.”

No—maybe you just like your toast cut in half.

Not everything you do is disordered.

Not everything you do needs a label.

Not everything you do needs to change. (This one is particularly true!)

You know, like I said, I’m quite critical of drug rehabilitation programs—mostly because statistically, they’re very unsuccessful.

But this idea that “you are an addict”—it’s like, well, not if you’ve stopped using, you’re not. OK?

That doesn’t mean you can go and use again—you’re clearly someone who doesn’t do drugs well, but you don’t need to call that addiction.

To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here: