Gambling has become more and more prominent in our society andaccess to gambling is very present, especially in Oregon. I have agreat deal of experience treating problem gamblers and theirfamilies. I have included here a short article that I wrote aboutproblem gambling and recovery.

Things You Can Do To Stop Gambling

Nobody wakes up one day and decides to become a gamblingaddict. Gambling usually begins as a recreational activity - it's away to spend time with friends while enjoying the game and theexcitement of the chance to win a few bucks. Recreational gamblersgenerally stick to a time and money budget. When they reach theirlimit, they stop and move on to the next activity.

Not so for the pathological gambler. Gambling addicts are notreally all that interested in winning or losing. Their main goal is tostay in action as long as possible. That action increases the levelsof certain chemicals in their brain, primarily dopamine andadrenaline, and those chemicals cause the gambler to feel happy andexcited. These are the same brain chemicals that are activated bycocaine use. Using modern imaging tools, we see that brain scans ofgamblers in action look practically identical to brains that are highon cocaine. Winning is good because it provides money to extend thegambling action. Money represents nothing more than the fuel to keepthe gambling going and the action keeps whatever painful thoughts andfeelings that the gambler is seeking to escape, at bay.

For someone in recovery, avoiding people, places and activities linked to gambling can help them avoid a setback. By avoiding these triggers, you can avoid the thoughts and feelings that encourage gambling. So, if driving by a casino after work sparks thoughts of gambling, take an alternative way home. Go for a very long walk or run, or visit your local gym and get a good workout. Exercise changes your brain chemistry in a positive way by releasing certain chemicals called endorphins. These brain chemicals alone can stop you from gambling and seeking out that adrenaline high. Do you, or does someone you love, seem to have trouble with slot machines, the lottery, scratch tickets, or any other form of gambling? You can take some initial steps on your own. Here are three questions used to screen for gambling disorder, and here is a free, online toolkit for those who might be ready to make some changes. Hedging your bets on a card game or at the horse track may feel exhilarating, but this habit can compromise your financial stability and even ruin your relationships. You can free yourself from your gambling habit by holding yourself accountable and putting measures in place to reduce the time and money you dedicate to gambling. Although it may feel like you’re powerless to stop gambling, there are plenty of things you can do to overcome the problem, repair your relationships and finances, and finally regain control of your life. The first step is to separate the myths from the facts about gambling problems: Myths and Facts about Gambling Problems.

There are usually several distinct phases of gambling addiction:the winning phase, the losing phase and the desperation phase. As thedisease progresses from winning into losing and desperation, gamblersoften turn to criminal activity to fund their addiction. They will lieand steal from those close to them - family, friends, husbands, wives,parents and children. Some gamblers ultimately turn to suicide. Infact, gamblers attempt suicide at a rate that far exceeds that ofalmost any other clinical population. Forty-eight percent of gamblersin treatment in Oregon have had suicidal thoughts and nine percenthave made suicide attempts.

All of this occurs despite the fact that gamblers are generallybright, creative people. Many gamblers are educated and professionallyaccomplished. In this sense, gamblers' behavior is said to beego-dystonic, which means that it is incongruent with their truenature. Behaving in ways that run so counter to who they really are,gamblers generate a great deal of internal distress as they violatetheir own personal values time and time again. As they progress in theillness, they become more and more disconnected from loved ones, theirprofessional lives and themselves. Their dishonesty is not only towardothers, but also toward themselves.

Many people believe that if a gambler is losing excessive amountsof time and money gambling, they should just stop. The fact is,gambling addicts cannot 'just stop' any more than an alcoholic or drugaddict can stop using their drug of choice. Gambling addiction causeschanges in the gambler's brain in ways that require treatment andrecovery to arrest the addiction.

When gambling stops (usually when there's no more money), thegambler crashes - financially, physically, mentally, emotionally andspiritually. This crash is a combination of the gambler's realizationof the money and time lost, and the decrease in dopamine levels in thebrain that can lead to desperate thoughts and behavior. This is alsowhen gamblers may realize that they need professional help.

Recovery from gambling addiction begins with the gambler making anhonest assessment of his or her situation and deciding that they wantto stop gambling. The gambler must initiate abstinence and putbarriers in place to prevent access to money. Family members andfriends may be enlisted to help the gambler manage finances and theymust understand that the gambler is incapable of handling moneyresponsibly at this time.

Once the gambler has some time away from gambling and their systembegins to regain equilibrium, the confusion and mental fog created by gamblingwill begin to ease. Therapy can then address the issues that led themto gambling in the first place. For many, gambling is not their firstaddiction. Often gamblers have had previous problems with alcoholand/or other drugs, or compulsive shopping, spending, sex oreating. It is important to note that until the core issues areaddressed and resolved, individuals disposed to addiction will simplytrade one addiction for another. It is an attempt to mask the pain intheir lives. True recovery is achieved by doing the hard work tounderstand and make peace with life's difficulties.

Recovery from gambling addiction is a marathon, not a sprint. Itrequires effort, diligence and lifestyle changes that keep one healthyand safe from the cravings to gamble that will most surelyarise. Exercise, sleeping well, eating a healthy diet and maintainingnurturing relationships are all important parts of healthyrecovery.

The ready availability of gambling has made it possible forgambling addiction to run rampant. In Oregon, gambling is as close asthe corner deli. Gambling addiction destroys lives and familieswithout bias - it affects men and women, young and old, rich andpoor. Like all addictions, it is a disease. But there is hope. Whenaddicts and families seek and engage professional help, true recoveryis possible.

Things I Can Do To Stop Gambling Addiction

© 2011 John Benassu, MA, LPC All Rights Reserved.

Things I Can Do To Stop Gambling Money

• This topic has 11 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 6 months ago by .

Things I Can Do To Stop Gambling Losses

• I just don’t know what to do. I have a nice wife and a new beautiful baby. I keep gambling and have all types of problems. What do I do first?

  Coming here Scott is the first thing, looking for help. You will find heaps of help here, try the groups, talk to one on one advisors, look at timetable on home page to right.. you need to log in and click on flag of your country to see what time things are on for you.. keep reading here, try to remember what we discussed on chat. Give your wife control of finances. Get to GA, keep coming here and reading and posting. You have begun Scott just by seeking. See you soon
  P – Living and Learning

  Scott welcome along. What to do first, well if I were you I would make myself safe from gambling right now. Exclude from venues or websites where you gamble, if you gamble online there is some great gambling blocking software available I use K9 its free and works well, and if its only gambling you want blocked thats all it will block, of course there are other filtering programmes on the market.
  Does your wife know about your gambling? If not I think it would be wise to tell her, the consequences for you and your wife will be far greater if she discovers by some other means, ie realising that the bank account isn’t right or you have loans.
  GA (gamblers anonymous) have quite a lot of meetings in Florida you will find links to GA in the help section of this website.
  The good news Scott is you can stop. You might disagree at this present moment in time, but I can tell you it is possible but requires a lot of hard work. I had gambled for 30 years, I dont gamble now. I’m not cured of it but I live a very happy life now with a great job and I pay all my bills on time.
  To get to this stage I had to put some very strong barriers in place. Firstly I gave my atm debit and credit cards to someone I trust, they locked them in their safe. If you are in crisis now and looking for a quick fix, I’m afraid you wont find one anywhere. However if you think you’re at risk of gambling tomorrow you could put all your cards in the post to yourself keeping them at arms length might help prevent you getting your hands on gambling money. Better still ring the banks and ask them to stop them, you could say youve lost them.
  Its as simple as getting through the day without gambling, if that seems too difficult just try to get by hour by hour, occupying yourself and filling your time with anything other than gambling.
  It would be helpful if you could post a little bit more about yourself and your gambling, you will never be judged on here We are all compulsive gamblers and it sounds as if you are too. Lots of us have gone to the most pathetic lengths to gamble. Lots have been to prison, ****** and robbed. We have all **** to our love ones and made gambling our priority in life.
  I dont know if youve ever tried to quit before, but it something that will never happen without support. Once you have managed to abstain from gambling for a week or two it might pay you to seek out some counselling, this can really help us.
  By coming here you are admitting you have a problem and that is a great move, that chatroom is open all weekend and you will find someone in there that will be able to support you. A good place to start is by reading the threads in the forum, not just the recent posts. On a long thread it sometimes pays to read the first page, where the person just arrives here much like yourself. You can skim read and see the progress that that person has made and you can gain a great amount of inspiration by doing so.
  We are all the same here Scott, the golden rule is just get through today without a gamble, take care of tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year when they arrive.
  Lots of us end up going back to gambling repeatadly but perstance does pay off. Of course there are also people here who might never have gambled since they first came, unfortunatley not me.
  Nobody can fix this for you, except yourself, but you need support to do so.
  You really can stop Scott, please post a bit more about yourself. Take care.
  Geordie.I dont gamble.

  Hi Scott! It was nice to meet you in the chat room tonight. P and Geordie have given you some awesome suggestions on how to get back into recovery. You can do this again as you had five years of clean time previously, and I sense a sincere desire from you to quit again. There is a male who comes to this site who lives in the same state as you do, and he has a lot of clean time as well. What a blessing to have a nice wife and a beautiful baby. You will find LOTS of support on this site. Wishing you the best in your recovery journey. You mentioned you were going to go to a GA meeting tomorrow. Way to go Scott! Carole

  HI Scott, welcome to GT. Put up all barriers you can to help you in your recovery. GA Meetings are awesome. Keep posting and reading other’s threads. We are all here to support each other.Seize all the good things in life

  Hi Scott,
  since you are already posted here, you’ve taken a step toward your recovery. I’d recommend attending GA meetings next, after talking it out with people with similar problems, you’d have a better view of yourself and hopefully find the next step to tackle this addiction.

  Originally posted by Scott S.

  … What do I do first?
  Good morning Scott, my name is Larry and I am a compulsive gambler, my last bet was Augest 13, 2009. Welcome to GT, a place where you can learn about the different ways and means to folllow after you do the first thing to start turning your life around.The first thing that I found after many atempts to control my gambling that needed to be done was to stop gambling, to 'Not Gamble For Anything'. At the moment it may feel like this can only be done at the moment, but in denying the urges and irrational thoughts that lead to gambling during these first moments will give you the strength to not gamble during the next few hours, and then to not gamble for the day. Not gambling for a day, living gambling free 'One Day At A Time', and praticing that priciple each day will lead to a continoues life of recovery and return to a normal way of lifing and thinking.So I would say that the first thing to do is to not gamble and to do everything possible to not gamble; and just as important, do everything possible to keep the verb 'have' in your statement, 'I have a nice wife and a new beautiful baby', at 'have' and not transformed to the conjugated form of 'had' due to the consequiences of any future gambling. I lost my nice wife and beautiful daughter by allowing gambling to take the place of needed therapy for depression allowing too much time and too many miles to weaken and destroy our lives together, nevertheless it was gambling that destroed what I charished. Don’t let gambling for whatever reason completely destroy your family — don’t let this happen to you or let you feel that you will never let your actions that it that far; as a CG still in action, you will, or the overpowering addiction will that is — it is the nature of the beast. Urges can not hurt you, and although they may reoccur frequently at ***** they only last a short time; let them subside with out giving in. As for the irrational thoughts, they will take more effort, learning, and acceptance to overcome. You can find that knowledge and strength through the help of those here and in other forms of support such as Gamblers Anonymous, give all types of help a honest and open minded effort; do the everything that is needed to stop gambling. Don’t stop at something that may seem uncomfortable at the time, or that goes against you lifestyle or way of thinking. Once you decide to not gamble, and you possibly find that you had a relapse alone the way, in looking back you will realize that the reason for the slip was that you limited the 'everything needed' to not gamble, that you gave a higher priority to a seemingly more comfortable and easy choice to gamble over the choice to not gamble and work your recovery. You need gambling free time to work recovery, time to allow changes to be made in your character and lifestyle. These changes are what will take over the just abstaining form gambling and allow you to live a gambling free life. Without change, there will be no change; and this includes changes in attitude, not just character. Keep visiting and participating here, read the post of others and learn from their advice and suggestions. God’s speed, use your Higher Power to guide and strengthen you.LarryThanks to my Higher Power, My 3G’s – God, GA, and GT, 'Day Two Is Another Day Behind' and with the help from all , I will continue to remain gambling free.

  Hi Scott:
  I just wanna say that since I started coming here and reading everybody’s comments …. I started to feel that I am not alone in this and started to feel the healing …… for me it’s been like 3 weeks now since I gambled ….. I know I will never get back what I have lost …but I aslo know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel …..so do not give up ….I encourage you to read the stories in here ……. they’re so inspiring and helping …..
  God Bless,
  Adam
  

  Good on you Scott, great news on the meetings, they really do help don”t they.. Keep going.. way to go!!!
  P – Living and Learning

  Hi Scott and welcome to the GT site. Thank you for coming here and being honest about your currrent situation and most important for asking for help. Your asking for help is so important because it allows US to try to help you and in that process we help ourselves, or you could really say that you are helping us by asking us to help you. How’s that for a run-along sentence?
  If you attended your first meeting yesterday afternoon (Coral Springs, Delray Beach, Hollywood, Palm Coast, or Wellington?) AND really enjoyed the meeting, then you are well on your way to solving your problem(s). I attend the Wednesday night GA meeting in Sarasota, near Tampa. We usually have around 20 members attending which make for a nice mix of different types of gamblers and different types of recovery. It is something like eating at a buffet restaurant…something for everyone.
  Like you Scott, I really enjoyed my first GA meeting on March 15, 1991. My first impression was these people are CHARACTERS! But I soon realized that I fit right in! It is amazing how much alike we are despite all the differences in the details of our experience and path to GA. The nice part of our diversity is we can learn something at every meeting, including learning what NOT to do which is sometimes more helpful than listening to the wisdom and experience of the 'oldtimers'.
  I am visiting family up north for a few weeks Scott, but I will try to attend some GT online sessions. I hope to get to know you better there and share in your early recovery. Thanks.
  …each day is a GIFT!

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