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...
Today is my first post.
I have been watching this site for months and I believe I am now sadly in a place that REALITY has set in.
Is there really ANY HELP FOR THIS? I feel so lost and ashamed. I'm totally alone even though I have a ton of friends, business associates, and an incredible family. No One knows the depths I have buried myself in with this addiction.
I went to one GA meeting and my husband did not know I was going. He called multiple times while I was at meeting and I did not answer my phone. When I got home he was angry (and had every right to be).
We keep ALL of our FINANCES separate in our marriage so he has no idea how much I have lost.
He knows I love to Gamble and he knows I love the SLOTS. He just has no idea that I go almost daily either on my way to work or home from work and I usually LOSE AN AVERAGE OF $600 per day.
On advice from a man at my first GA meeting I told my husband when I got home after not answering his calls where I had been. I told him I believed I have a Gambling Problem.
He thinks its just the little Gambling Game on My cell phone I'm referring to. That alone I lose somewhere between $1000 - $1500 per month! So I removed the app and he thinks I have now stopped Gambling.
When I told him I believe I have a problem. He said he agreed I probably should "slow down" or stop. However did NOT agree that I was really a Gambling Addict that needed help or treatment.
I can't tell him everything yet. I'm just NOT READY. I want to seek help privately first. He can be extremely judgemental and controlling and I just don't want him looking at me and my every move in judgement.
Where do I begin this Recovery???? Can I really RECOVER????
To the world I am a successful business professional with "everything going for her"... reality is... I PISS IT ALL AWAY.
Please help me know what the most aggressive way I can get into recovery is.
Meetings in my area are only a couple days a week and usually in evenings.
Please help me with your suggestions... I'M JUST LOST AND SCARED
Thank you
I have been watching this site for months and I believe I am now sadly in a place that REALITY has set in.
Is there really ANY HELP FOR THIS? I feel so lost and ashamed. I'm totally alone even though I have a ton of friends, business associates, and an incredible family. No One knows the depths I have buried myself in with this addiction.
I went to one GA meeting and my husband did not know I was going. He called multiple times while I was at meeting and I did not answer my phone. When I got home he was angry (and had every right to be).
We keep ALL of our FINANCES separate in our marriage so he has no idea how much I have lost.
He knows I love to Gamble and he knows I love the SLOTS. He just has no idea that I go almost daily either on my way to work or home from work and I usually LOSE AN AVERAGE OF $600 per day.
On advice from a man at my first GA meeting I told my husband when I got home after not answering his calls where I had been. I told him I believed I have a Gambling Problem.
He thinks its just the little Gambling Game on My cell phone I'm referring to. That alone I lose somewhere between $1000 - $1500 per month! So I removed the app and he thinks I have now stopped Gambling.
When I told him I believe I have a problem. He said he agreed I probably should "slow down" or stop. However did NOT agree that I was really a Gambling Addict that needed help or treatment.
I can't tell him everything yet. I'm just NOT READY. I want to seek help privately first. He can be extremely judgemental and controlling and I just don't want him looking at me and my every move in judgement.
Where do I begin this Recovery???? Can I really RECOVER????
To the world I am a successful business professional with "everything going for her"... reality is... I PISS IT ALL AWAY.
Please help me know what the most aggressive way I can get into recovery is.
Meetings in my area are only a couple days a week and usually in evenings.
Please help me with your suggestions... I'M JUST LOST AND SCARED
Thank you
California has a problem gambler hot line: 1-800 - Gambler
California does subsidize treatment for gambling addiction the people at the above number can tell you what is available and where.
Some folks I know can, in a pinch go to any kind of 12 step meeting and just substitute gambling for alcoholic, drug addict, addict, co-dependent or whatever in their mind. While every group is slightly different even within one addiction, they are much the same in spirit and philosophy.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket. For me, to get ahead of this addiction I needed more than GA, support group, counseling, I needed to make major changes in my lifestyle, thinking and actions.
In my early attempts to quit, I wanted the counselor to use the "magic wand" method to cure me, and make me a social gambler again. Needless to say that wish did not happen. Wishing it away does not work.
Understanding the disease is something you can start doing on your own. There are quite a few YouTube videos and audios on the subject and also on TED.com
You can enlist the help of a friend to hold your bank cards for you or get rid of atm card all together. You can self ban at casinos and you can lower the amount of $ you withdraw on a daily basis with your bank. It really helps to put some barriers in place between you and your money. You can also work on an official good-bye letter to gambling, think about why you want to quit, how painful it has been and say goodbye. - Then re-read it when you think you want to gamble again. Here is a link to my goodbye - entry in my journal here on DS: http://www.dailystrength.org/people/4409113/journal/11884623 If you can't get access to it you may need to friend me to do so, I can't remember.
Most of all don't give up - keep trying - do everything you can and anything.
Prayer helps but it is a spiritual relationship not a first aid kit that you only call on when in trouble. And like homework, our higher power usually wants us to do our part too. (Faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead. - James 2:17)
May you clearly see a path to abstinence.