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...

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? 18 YES

Leapyear22
Leapyear22
OMG, I read the post Question 18 and thought, "were they reading my mind." I found myself getting upset tonight (daughter) and the urge was overwhelming to gamble,,, I'm not kidding. I fought the urge, calmed myself down and a light bulb came on, wow, anger, or arguments, usually about things I have no control of, give me the urge to gamble. Then I thought, "is it an excuse?" YES, its an excuse. Also, I try to control everything, including my gambling, cleaning up the mess real fast, and pretending it didn't happen, over and over again. Insanity, yes, crazy, yes. Day 9 for me, and I feel a slight depression coming on, so I'm trying to remind myself to be good to myself and not so impulsive with my mood. This is crazy, this compulsion is disgusting and has controlled my life for the last 10 years. Enough!! There is no excuse to take a gun and hurt myself, anymore than there is an excuse to place one more bet. Not today. And I pray, not tomorrow. xoxox
Leapyear22
Leapyear22
correction day 10 :)
victoria2014
victoria2014
Isn't it really refreshing to catch yourself from falling? I love those awakening moments! It makes me feel as a whole person instead of split and run!
good for you!

Love,
Victoria
legolady
legolady
Leapyear---I'm trying to practice more mindfulness... there is so much that we do that hurt us that we dont even think about and we continue to do it. Its crazy. I'm listing all the horrible things this disease has done to me, my life, my family... the list keeps growing and I will keep adding. It is actually painful to write it down and read it. But I will carry it with me and read it daily to keep the urge off bay.

Take baby steps if you can't take a huge leap. We are here for you.
legolady
legolady
Probably might help to read ?18before replying. :). Another thing that I can add to my list of what gambling has done to me... makes it hard to focus, concentrate, and pay attention to the conversation at hand.

I agree.. I've been there picking fights with everyone... cause my mind is in conflict with itself and.. I just need an excuse to go out or storm out.

Good for you leapyear for having the awareness.
thenewway
thenewway
yes, legolady,

I have read so very often how great mindfulness is
to taking back control of your actions and to quit
simply reacting or overreacting to lifes "stressors".

I truly believe that I gambled instead of wanting
to "deal with" life stressors when I first started to gamble.
Then when I really had to deal with something I literally
ran to the c - - - - - to not have to think about or deal with
the "stuff" going on in life.

Which made the stuff worse and made me gamble more
and then the stuff got even worser and the gamble went
through the roof and then so did the stuff and ..............
whew,
stop the insanity
and the gambling frenzy
I want to get off.

yes,
mindfulness is a great way to learn to recognize our feelings
and moods and how our body responds to different things that
happen to and "hit" us in life.

a great technique to new coping skills to attain recovery and maintain recovery.