Hey Vera – thanks for that post was a good read.
I agree with everything you say. Perspective and awareness is how we can beat this thing. Willpower in my opinion is totally useless and a fruitless endeavour. How do I know this? I have tried to stop 100’s of times – literally and never had real success. I beat myself up so much because I had such an awesome plan for just living life 3 years ago when I turned 30, but my gambling just destroyed my confidence over time. The last 3 years have without a doubt been the most painful in my life. I almost lost it all. I know I will get over it eventually, but I never want to forget it – I want to use it as a reminder to never let myself get in this situation ever again.
The combination of my awareness to the problem and my perspective change is how I know I will beat this. I know habits take time to break, I’m not naive. The perspective change is one very powerful tool, others I use in include zero credit card access and only living expense access ($150 – $200 in my account at any one time), daily exercise and a solid studying/reading routine. I have also had to stop catching up with a person who just wants to gamble constantly non stop whenever we go out for a drink.
Anyway I’m moving forward, heading into my third weekend without gambling confident I will come out the other side OK. Good luck with your journey keep posting let us all now how your getting along! I think you have another long thread I’ll check it out.