Getting Past Gambling

A place to come and share experiences, to find support and strength, for those of us who are putting gambling behind us and finding new exciting and happier ways to live our lives.
" You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing."
*Dale Carnegie {1888-1955 American Author & Achievement Expert}


Friday, September 02, 2005

Some Things to Know About Compulsive Gambling

SOME THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT COMPULSIVE GAMBLING
http://www.gamblingrecovery.com/main.htm

The rush a compulsive gambler feels when he has a substantial wager is incredibly intense. It is hard to duplicate the drama of having hundreds or thousands of dollars hanging in the balance of a few minutes or hours.
Gambling in this sense is like a drug.
We can become so totally obsessed with the "big hit" and feeling that ecstasy, that we escape reality for hours, even days. We'll loose ourselves in fantasies about how we'll spend our winnings or turn them into even greater fortunes.

The "high rolling" life thus appeals to us as we spend our time going from one rush to the next, one fantasy to another.For the compulsive gambler, the allure of gambling is not the money, but the rush provided by the entire process.
The goal is to be always "In Action".
Gamblers often claim that they are only motivated by money not just to convince themselves or others that they'll quit once they finally make their hit.
Yet addicted gamblers always plow back their winnings eventually - no matter what the amount.
That's because your need to feel the intense rush that gambling provides does not go away once you win.
In fact, the need for that rush becomes even stronger once gamblers experience the unbelievable high of making a big hit. You want to experience that joy once again.
The thinking is, "Hey, I did it once, so I know I can do it again".
So inevitably gamblers seek out that thrill again and again and again, no matter how much they are ahead or how much they have lost.

It's not about the money.

Does the cocaine addict stop taking cocaine after experiencing his greatest high ever?
Does the compulsive eater stop wanting gorge himself after eating the most delicious meal of his life? Of course not - because addictions are an end in themselves.
They are the end.
We tell ourselves that we need to get through the weekend, or just need to eat this meal, or just need to make so much money, as if there is a goal we are trying to reach that once met will free us from our addiction.
But this is a complete fantasy, a lie we create to justify our irrational behavior.
The only goal of our addictive behavior is to feed the addiction.

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