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...
Sometimes I think the more you focus on NOT gambling the more you want to....its a crazy thing our brains do to us...just like any addiction...the more you know you have to stop the more you want to do it.... Just like people that diet or smoke...the more they tell themselves they can't it seems like the more you want to smoke..blow a diet...smoke a cigarette and so on...if there was some way to detour our brains I really think this addition would be a little easier...I am a firm believer of setting up road blocks ...so you don't have the access to self destruct...I know easier said than done but get rid of any access to available money....and self ban if possible...give your money and finances to someone you can trust...it's a start......good luck to everyone on their journey...God bless you all
If we weren't prone to running from our problems, we wouldn't be addicted to gambling in the first place. So while sometimes the recovery work is a trigger, most of the time I think it's saving me.
When I tried to quit with just sort of white-knuckling will power, it didn't really work for me. I had to make attitude changes and lifestyle changes and begin to care about me again.The self-hatred was bad at the end of my gambling decades.
I needed to deal with feelings, issues and problems head on and I needed help in the form of treatment/counseling to just get to where I felt like I was worth the work and effort.