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...
I survived being 10 minutes away from the casino for three days and did not gamble. But I was a mess. Had one minor melt down and one all out trmper tantrum. Lost my temper big time. My family is so dysfuntional. anyway over another hurdle. yay. And next time it won't be a surprise that it is ther it just caught me off gaurd
Sadly, many of us come from dysfunctional families, I do and it seems to me, (not scientific evidence), that about 50% of the other gamblers in recovery I've met also had very dysfunctional families. This is a big part of the roots of my compulsions and addictions. Therapy helped me tremendously, you can check with the National Problem Gambler Helpline to find out if problem gambling is subsidized in your state and where treatment centers are located. The fact that our families are often not a great source of support is why we need support groups and therapy.
Aside from handing over money to someone trusted you might want to try some of the other tools. Do you use HALT? (The four most common triggers across all addictions) Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired? When one feels triggered, we ask ourselves? Am I any of those? If yes, eat something healthy for hunger, write out feelings, do art work or write out what you are grateful for, when angry, call a friend or attempt to make a new friend if you are lonely, and take a nap or rest if you are tired. Usually we gamblers have spent many years blocking out our bad or uncomfortable feelings that we ended up blocking ALL feelings. (That was my goal in gambling and my past addictions as well.) The simple HALT tool helps to begin to tune in to our emotions and our bodies and begin to take better care of ourselves.
You might want to write out a goodbye to gambling letter if you haven't. And write out a few things that take at least 20 minutes (length of average urge) that you can do when you have a thought or urge to gamble.
Another month or so, (aren't you just around 60 days abstinent?) and your emotions and mood swings and dopamine levels will begin to level out. (And you will gain strength and resolve with each day and feel better.)
Thinking about worst case scenarios as far as urges go and coming up with ideas of what to do about it besides gambling - having a plan - can go a long ways when faced with the bad or the ugly or the abusive.
You have proved to yourself that you can get through very strong urges and you can do it again. You are stronger than you think you are. Hugs and Prayers.