Our whole life and thinking was centered in gambling, getting money to gamble, and finding ways and means to get more money.
We gamble to live and live to gamble. Very simply an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by gambling.
The gambler may not be aware that a problem exists until
1. they keep gambling but start to notice if they try to stop, that they are unable
2. when gambling they have lost control over the amount.
3. they run out of money and still have the strong urge to gamble (withdrawal)
We admitted that we gamble, but many of us did not think we had a problem.
Part of ourselves could see what was happening; another part would not accept it.
We were caught in an illusion of “what if,” “if only,” and “just one more try.”
We did not see ourselves as being addicted, as long as we could stop gambling for a day, a week, or even a month or more. We looked at the stopping, not the gambling.
We remember going through a lot of pain and despair before considering the possible connection between gambling and our misery.
Many of us had reached the point where we asked ourselves, “Could it be the gambling?”
Something inside said, “No more.”
We had begun to have silent thoughts that the gambling was killing us.
We realized that gambling were enslaving us instead of setting us free. We were prisoners in our own mind, condemned to a slow execution.
Our previous attempts to stay gamble free had always failed causing us many years of pain and misery.
