Hi Tosca
This is the post I mentioned – it was written some time ago by Harry, a CG who controls his addiction and works for GT. He is often on the Helpline. He was responding to the question ‘can I stop gambling without support? ‘
‘Great question, and one that’s been asked so many times &I like Charles couldn’t have given up without help.
Working on the helpline the question is asked can I stop alone. For various I can’t say 100% no that recovery can’t be gained without help
1. I’ve not met every gambler, but as of yet I’ve not met a true CG whose found recovery without help
2. Not every Gambler is compulsive, they may just have used gambling recreationally and it’s run away with them for a short while, but we have to remember that this addiction is progressive. If you ask any CG whose accepted recovery when the y went from recreational to problematic to compulsive I doubt they could answer
A compulsive gambler in denial will be asking and answering their own distorted questions with their own distorted answers, the perpetual cycle will continue until someone can challenge what you’re saying and thinking. This then brings up the next question “when does a CG know that they are thinking in a distorted way” the one answer in my opinion is to talk to people who are living without distorted thoughts like other CG’s in recovery who have almost definitely done this and seen and know they can’t trust their own thoughts, this can be done at GA, GT, CBT, Counseling etc or any other support group… trying to find recovery alone will remove this option and that in my opinion is the biggest reason a CG cannot find recovery alone.
Then my last question is “why would we want to find recovery alone”? the answer is normally “I’m Ashamed” or in a some instances the truth is a CG knows the above and hasn’t quite yet got to the point of accepting the reality or his or her addiction’