Gambling Addiction & Recovery Support Group

Hello Changeeverything and welcome to DS. Here you will find a very large support group that truly care about you. I am a compulsive gambler also. I have not done the voluntary self exclusion program. At the time that I decided to quit, I felt the same way that you are feeling right now. Deep inside my heart of hearts, I knew that I had the strength to fight this addiction with the help of my Higher Power. I visited this website and another website (www.gamblingtherapy.org). They have a group of online counselors that you can speak with online and will guide you toward very helpful resources that will help you in your recovery. I called a gambling hotline who directed me to a counselor, and I began reading a daily devotional every day and sending up a lot of prayers. Everyone one is different and what works for one of us might not work for someone else. What I do know and believe is that "You can do it!" Admitting the problem is the first step. You came to the right place. There are two very important things that you have to remember and never forget......"TAKE CARE OF YOU and BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!" Anything worth fighting for and living for is hard, but it gets easier. We have good days, and we have bad days. Focus on the good days. Put positive thoughts in your mind each and every day and remember that YOU ARE WORTH IT! :-) I hope that this has helped you if even for the few minutes it took for you to read. If it did, then it was worth every minute to me and to you. That, my friend, is what the road to recovery is truly all about........One minute at a time and one day at at a time! xoxoxoxo mamabear21

You have to do whatever it takes. Yes...the self exclusion is scary, but what's scarier is what will happen if you don't do it. I let my family and friends know, there was no more secrets. I just couldn't live like this any more and as scary as it was doing this stuff, the other side was even worse. I cheated, lied, stole money. You have to do whatever it takes. This website has been a Godsend for me. I read others journals and realized I was not alone and that my struggle would not be easy. Take it one day at a time. I'm only 3 months GF. I never know what tomorrow will bring. I just know that for today, I will not gamble.
welcome to DS. It has helped me a lot.

Wow, that's a heck of a self exclusion program,lifetime and getting arrested! The one here is not so scary - it is only a one year time period, they remove you from the casino, and if you were to win a jackpot and they realized you were excluded, the money goes to a gambling group, you don't get to keep it. I have thought long and hard about self exclusion, but I'm not there yet (I know, it's not reasons I have for not doing it, it's excuses!). I think that being able to do that will make me really feel like I'm serious about NEVER, EVER, EVER going back. That's what I want, to never gamble another dime. So even though I haven't been able to do it for myself, I think it's a great idea, and can only be a positive step.

We have the same program in our state. After I had caused more distruction then I could have dreamed, I banned myself from the 3 local casinos. Same setup though,if you trespass you are arrested. Unfortunatly I kept on gambling. I always found a way.. scratch ticket frenzys, on-line gambling ( VERY distructive) and eventually I made my way back downtown to the casino. I had lost a signifcant amount of weight, my name had changed, and I was very carefull not to play machines that paid over $1200. Otherwise they want your soc sec number and that's when they get you. I thought I had it all figured out. By the grace of God I didn't get caught. In retrospcect I may have been better off. It would have stopped me from giving that casino more and more and more money. I guess the bottom line is if you go to GA meetings you don't gamble if you don't go to meetings you gamble in my experience. I've had periods of time where I was clean. 3 mths, 6 mths, 9 mths..couldn't get to a year. But I was consitantly going to the GA meetings... Just be carefull, if you think you still might go. I think it works for some and not others. It did keep me out of the downtown casinos for while, but that didn't mean I couldn'tgo across the border ( which is a pain ) or drive 2 hours to the Indian casino which wasn't included in the bann. Oh yeah and the day I went downtown to bann myself from the casinos, I wanted to gamble ONE MORE TIME..my diseased mind told me I'm going to get them and go out a winner. LOL !! Went to my favorite slot machine and hit for $2500.. so the "stratigy" going in was to come out a "winner"...sadly enough I took those 25 $100 bills and went to another machine, I fed every single on of those $100 bills in that machine in 5 minutes. So much for my stratigy. Oh and I'm sure I fed in much more of my own money after that.. Complusive gambling.. The bottom line is we are all here with the same goal!!! I want my new addiction to be this site. Whatever you decide I wish you strenth and support. For me I want a new beginning !!

Hi change, good job with the self exclusion, seems like it was dificult for you. With me it was a spur of the moment decision. I had spent 600 bucks in about an hour and a half, 3 days before Christmas last year. I just walked up to a casino employee, told her what I wanted to do, then they took me to an office for the paperwork and the mug shot, lol, photo. Pennsylvania offers a 1 or 5 year option, or life. By life they mean life, no exceptions. With the 1 and 5 year plan, you just dont automaticcally come off the list, there is a lot of bs to go thru, I guess to make sure its what you really want. For me thats almost 4 1/2 years away, way too far away to be thinking about. I read your journals for the last couple days, you spoke of hitting bottom before recovery could begin, I guess that could be true, for me it was hitting bottom, then finding new and deeper bottoms. I am still digging out of debt, every penny I am in debt except my car, is due to my past gambling. I try to split my extra money between paying off debt and rebuilding my savings which were totally wiped out at the casino. For the most part I try not to think about what damage I did to my life in 3 1/2 years but sometimes I cant hide from the pain and regret and I get pretty depressed at times. But seeing the money situation improve keeps me motivated. There were times last year, if I would have had so much as a blown head light,, I would have had to dig in the penny jar untill payday. One thing too that I have realized in the last 8 months of being excluded, I am just as much a CG today as I was that dark, cold snowy evening in December when I admitted to the world, the machines beat me. I was there so often I guess I sometimes felt I knew more and was there fore more deserving of a big hit, then the other players. It was always so much fun, first walking in the door with a pocket full of cash and just "knowing" I was gonna walk out with even more. Well good luck guy, maybe talk again. Ken

I didn't read everything, but my quick answer is that it will help VERY much to avoid gambling. However, if you don't have a plan of what else to do, you could very well replace it with any number of self destructive behaviors. If you're like me, you'll jump from addiction to addiction. Always needing something to give you the rush.

I didn't self exclude. It seems so final. I'm doing well without doing it though. Just get a plan and then get your butt down there and tell them "You Quit". ;O)