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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Uh-oh, it's Friday...

yes2recovery
yes2recovery

When I left work today, exhausted, brain-drained, eager for the weekend, I got in my car and thought "I could go gamble right now". There are SO many things wrong with that picture, and I didn't go, but I can't deny that the urge was strong. In the past, gambling after a hard week was just a given, and my addict doesn't seem to want to let me forget that pattern even though it's been a long time. Grateful that my money's safeguarded and that I was able to come home, write this post, and settle in for a quiet, safe evening. Holy crow, this addiction is cunning and relentless, and I don't want to let it back in! Today, for sure, I will not gamble. Wishing you all strength for the journey, too. 

Qwit4Good
Qwit4Good
Good work, yes2recovery, on having safeguards and having already taken precautions. I sometimes think of my recovery as a constant shifting plan to avoid a variety of landmines. As long as I remember that the mines are there, I can use a map (tools I gained in treatment/GA), to navigate out of this or that mine field.
Skday
Skday
That’s great yes2recovery! I’ve noticed that when I’m tired or have put in a long day at work, my defenses go way down.
Robin-Mc
Robin-Mc
I have no desire to gamble, no urge to harm myself in that way. I’m grateful to be feeling this way. However, I do have reminders, on a daily basis, of how it use to be when I was feeding my addiction. For me it was a feeling of wanting to escape whatever feelings I was experiencing at the time, usually fear and anger. I can remember trying to convince myself that I wasn’t hurting anyone, that adults can have secrets, and that I could keep my secret. That sounds ridiculous to me today. I know that secret can kill me. I’m not sure why abstaining from this one thing, gambling, completely changed my way of thinking. In the beginning months of my recovery I remember thinking how could abstaining from this one thing begin to heal so many problems in my life, but I also remember actually having faith, I knew abstinence changed other compulsive gamblers lives. I knew I needed a change and began wanting one, too. So I hung in there, and I can’t say exactly when, but a sense freedom replaced any doubt that abstinence couldn’t/wouldn’t help me. I quit gambling, one day at a time, and something clicked in my heart, that something was a realization I no longer had to hurt myself.
Today I will not gamble
Cristiangel
Cristiangel
Great job yes to recovery! I have also have urges to gamble - to drive back to the casino. I thought of the money that I have in my wallet and ways to trick my husband so that he doesn’t find
out. But then I think of all the hard work that I have already invested and how I don’t want to be back to day 1 again. I think of all the lies, my horrible mood swings, anxiety, etc.. and say, “no thank you.” I curl up in my nice, warm bed and play my favorite app games (I love this game called Word Domination. It’s like Scrabble). I play it over and over again, play my five lives and when my lives are over, I pay the $1.99 for more lives... with no guilt, but rather.. celebration.... $1.99 per day is nothing...... we all have to find our way that works for us to beat this horrible addiction..