Gambling Addiction & Recovery Support Group
Compulsive gambling is an urge or addiction to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. A preferred term among many professionals is problem gambling, as few people described by the term experience true compulsions in the clinical sense of the word. Problem gambling often is defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others rather...
These questions are from the Gamblers Anonymous program. Anyone who thinks they may be a problem gambler should honestly answer these 20 questions.
1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or
otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win
back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your
family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry, trouble, boredom,
loneliness, grief or loss?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to
finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an
urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few
hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self-destruction or suicide as a result of
your gambling?
Only you can answer the question: Are you a compulsive gambler?
Most compulsive gamblers will answer "yes" to at least 7 of the above questions.
1. Did you ever lose time from work or school due to gambling?
2. Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?
3. Did gambling affect your reputation?
4. Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?
5. Did you ever gamble to get money with which to pay debts or
otherwise solve financial difficulties?
6. Did gambling cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?
7. After losing did you feel you must return as soon as possible and win
back your losses?
8. After a win did you have a strong urge to return and win more?
9. Did you often gamble until your last dollar was gone?
10. Did you ever borrow to finance your gambling?
11. Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?
12. Were you reluctant to use "gambling money" for normal expenditures?
13. Did gambling make you careless of the welfare of yourself or your
family?
14. Did you ever gamble longer than you had planned?
15. Have you ever gambled to escape worry, trouble, boredom,
loneliness, grief or loss?
16. Have you ever committed, or considered committing, an illegal act to
finance gambling?
17. Did gambling cause you to have difficulty in sleeping?
18. Do arguments, disappointments or frustrations create within you an
urge to gamble?
19. Did you ever have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few
hours of gambling?
20. Have you ever considered self-destruction or suicide as a result of
your gambling?
Only you can answer the question: Are you a compulsive gambler?
Most compulsive gamblers will answer "yes" to at least 7 of the above questions.
Perhaps I was so much in the fog back then, I thought the higher the score the better.....kinda like SAT's?!?
But in reality....I knew! More was not better...literally! Now I look at these questions and view them from the perspective of golf. Below par is the best place to be, and playing scratch golf (no handicap) is ideal!
And might I say, so much more enjoyable!
Stroking my way, one day at a time, with strong determination, towards 1,095 GF days...
Be well, stay strong and thank you Jayd for the walk down memory lane,
Tagg
For me, I know that I have a much deeper appreciation for each of these questions now than I did on my 1st meeting. A lot of time is spent here on DS talking about triggers and urges- a lot of wisdom could be gained by taking a cold hard look at these questions and relating them to our own experiences. In other words, a big key to minimizing urges and/or putting distance between yourself and triggers is identifying them and putting practices into place to make sure that you at least recognize them before making that next bet.
For what it's worth, I think I had 14 too the first go round, now I'm pretty sure it's 19 or 20, depending upon definitions.
Jay