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...

971 Members
6,389 Posts
0 Online
Addiction & Recovery
/ Gambling Addiction & Recovery Support Group

Have wanted to gamble so bad all day!

imatotalmess
imatotalmess
The urge has been awful today. I even thought about how to start an argument with my husband so I could leave the house and go gambling. Sick, I know. However, I did not do it and am now in my pjs settling in for the night hoping this urge goes away! It's nice to have gotten my paycheck and paid all our bills and have a little left over. We even went major grocery shopping and as soon as I am done with this message, I'm going to order some long awaited (and needed but could never "afford") make-up. Even knowing all the good things I did with our money these last two days, the urge is stronger than ever. Been almost three weeks and this was the worst. Thanks for letting me ramble! Here's to another GF day!
toey
toey
Congrats on successfully fighting the urge!

I know exactly how you feel. When it's bad, it's like your mind can reason any way it wants to if it will lead you to gambling. Some examples I've had in the past were:

- maybe I should go out to get some petrol. The petrol station near the casino is pretty cheap.

- I need to win some money so I can buy x.

- life isn't going well for me anyway, so I might as well go lose all my money (I call this financial suicide).

- if I go win $25 and come back, then I will have beaten the casino.

- I need to test my self control by seeing if I can resist using the ATM if I lose all my money.

You'll see that some of those are pretty silly. But that's what it is - it's like a drug that warps your mind. I remember that scene in Spiderman 3 where he is trying to pull the black Spiderman skin off himself, and I always likened my gambling addiction to that - it was something I desperately tried to pull off but it stuck to me like super glue.

Anyway, I hope you can post here everyday to let us know you have beaten the bug for another day.
imatotalmess
imatotalmess
Made it without gambling - whew! Still have some money in the bank and feeling pretty good about that today. Don't have the urge today at all either so I outlasted it. Man this addiction sucks big time!
deleted_user
deleted_user
Change the channel in your mind!! I have found that unless I get my mind off that 'thought' immediately, I dwell more and more on it and end up gambling. First thing you can do is make you a list of small projects or even just ideas to change that channel to....then keep it close and just take your mind off the urge as quickly as possible. When I quit smoking I remember that I actually notated every time I thought about a cigarette....the first day was literally every five minutes...but by the end of the week it was every few hours. You can do this!!!
deleted_user
deleted_user
Hang in there...we can do this together. I've thought about it too...alot. This is the 4th day for me, and sometimes the urge is really strong. Instead of going to the casino I donated some things to a crisis center, and only took out enough money to get the groceries that I needed, and came straight home. If I take the habit out it, maybe I won't go.