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...
Thank you Qwit, it was a good idea. I want to share it. I want to write this letter so the next time that I get an urge to gamble ....I want to be able to remember how it felt to lose but mostly I want to be able to remember how much I HATE losing. Here goes: I will remember going into that place and feeling the high of just being there. I will remember that I dropped way too much money in one machine hoping it will hit....and it still it didn't let me win. I will remember that it doesn't matter how much more money you deposit into that slot.....you will LOSE. I will remember going from one machine to another thinking one of them has to let me win but they didn't. Now comes the really FUN part. I will remember the awful feeling of walking out of that place with my stomach in knots and feeling like I just wanted to run and hide. I will remember not sleeping that night and my brain working overtime trying to figure out what I will do for money for the next two weeks. I will remember the horrible feeling coming home and knowing that I was in good shape financially BEFORE I walked into that horrid place. I will remember the panicky feeling on where I was going to get the money to pay the rent this month and also to buy the grand kids Easter gifts. I will have to go into a huge overdraft (AGAIN) plus use the credit card....there goes my next pay check. I will remember that now I can't buy Easter gifts for 2 of the grand kids which requires cash as I have to send it to my son who lives away. I will have to lie and say I sent it when I didn't. (chokes back tears) In the week before I went to the casino..I will remember for the first time in my life how I put 20.00 and loose change away in another coat and thought how silly I was for me to be doing this... ..yet some inner voice said do it. Then I will remember today how sheepishly I felt when I had to go thru that coat looking for any money I could find. I thanked God that it was there for me. (chokes back tears again) I will remember how I never had money for groceries and had to use the credit card again putting me in more debt. I will remember the girls calling me to go out to dinner and me refusing them because I just couldn't afford another expense. I will remember one of them passing away 2 days later and me cursing and wishing I had made the dinner. Sick feeling. I will remember having to go to Walmart and getting a toaster for my elderly aunt and using my credit card to purchase it so I could have the cash she gave me. Maybe I won't need to lie now about sending my son money for the kids even if its not that much. I will remember all these things....but most of all ... I will remember how much I hate the casino.
you can do this.... we all can...
But seriously, I know what you mean. My mom would get mad at us, I have siblings, when we cried, I guess it was partly because she didn’t want to see us hurt. My tears can be tears of frustration at life and things I have no control over. It is a way of letting it out, as long as you’re not out in public. I’ve had a meltdown or two out there in the real world, it’s embarrassing. And with a boss or two, also embarrassing. A psychologist once told me I cried because I held my anger in, and that crying won’t help with that. I’m still trying to learn to express my anger in healthier ways.
I say cry if it helps but be careful not to drown
This is coming from an experienced