Hey Steven,
I do agree with vera, once a CG always a CG.
The thing with addiction is that it’s not necessarily how often we play…it’s what happens to our thought patterns when we start to play.
We just can’t stop. We can’t just play small or for fun and leave. If we’re up we want more. If we’re down we wanna get it back ASAP. In other words, we just wanna keep playing. Sure we’ll stop the odd session with a significant win, feel great about ourselves. But you know what, that makes us view gambling in a even better light and we are all but guaranteed to return shortly again. If we COULD just walk away with a small win/loss and not think about gambling for a while, we wouldn’t be on these forums. I’m no psychologist but the way our brains are wired just makes gambling extremely destructive to us. It’s even strange for me to think that over 95% of the population can gamble recreationally without things escalating so why can’t I, an otherwise very rational and generally intelligent person, be the same? It is a tough pill to swallow. But you know what, I’m willing to let go of my pride and ego and just accept that I can never be a purely recreational or social gambler (despite the fact that when I do go with friends/family I’m fine, it’s still too dangerous as it will bring back inevitable urges to go alone later).
Is it possible to turn our mindset around? Definitely and I’m sure some people have. But after over 5 years of gambling and countless sessions, the amount of overall gambling sessions (alone) where I’ve kept total control is probably less than 10. The amount of sessions where I was confident I’d keep control but ended up losing control is well over 100. Yes I do feel my mindset changing over time but for people like us with that inner CG (which stays with us for life), a little bit of fun is simply not a risk worth taking – as the consequences can destroy everything we have.