We are either working at recovery or we are working towards a relapse
17% of All suicides linked to problem gambling
Partners of compulsive gamblers 3x more likely to attempt suicide than those suffering from any other addiction
7/10 inmates in prison estimated to have gambling issues
Start taking real action in tackling your addiction & stop playing at quitting.
Its going to kill you eventually & possibly the people you claim to care for.
day@atime wrote: Everyone knows that addictive behaviour is not good for you. People who suffer with addictions know this, best of all, because they have lived it. Yet addiction persists.Strange as it seems it must serve some purpose. In fact its purpose must be so great that it is even more essential than avoiding the bad consequences of addiction. It has to be more important than losing marriages, family, friends & health.It has to be more important than working in a field you love of hurting the people you love. What could be worth all that. In term of the outside world , the world of careers, family, success there is indeed nothing worth losing all this for. The purpose of addiction must therefore lie in the inside world, where what is at stake are feelings central to my emotional survival itself. If this is the case then it is not surprising to find it overide even the most important external causes. Addiction is a behaviour designed to reverse a profound, intolerable sense of helplessness.This helplessness is always rooted in something deeply important to the individual. Addictions are efforts to deal with the most important emotional issues in your life, it is impossible to understand them without understanding yourself as a person. The behaviour is not the issue. Addictive behaviour is nothing more or less than a symptom. Addiction is an action that gives a sense of empowerment in the face of helplessness. The solution requires self awareness, new coping skills & changing your enviroment. A person is vulnerable to addiction when that person feels a lack of satisfaction in life, an absence of intimacy, of strong connections to other people, a lack of self confidence, compelling interests or loss of hope. Addiction makes the painful tolerable & the ordinaryness of life worth living through. Addiction is an emotional anaeshetic. A solution against a feeling of emptyness, boredom, selfloathing, helplessness. A stress reliever. An attempt to escape distress. Addiction always originates in pain whether felt openly or hidden by the subconsious. I felt intolerably alone without my addiction. I felt incomplete & incompetent as a person. Addiction took those feelings away for a few hours. Freedom from my addiction is not gained easily. I must stop my magical thinking. Just wishing & wanting something to happen will not make it so. Forget about your life situation for a while & pay attention to your life. Your life situation exists in time. Your life is now
If you want to share something and what you share doesn't make you feel vulnerable it probably isn't worth sharing
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If one wishes to avoid criticism.
Do nothing.
S​ay nothing.
Be nothing.
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Again my apologies to everyone for deleting my posts.
Someone hit me with the truth and I wasnt ready to deal with it. The truth hurt... a childish huff and mass deletion followed
That person was right to point out my failings and double standards in relapsing but giving advice as if Im a saint. I salute that person
I have now excluded which seems to be a great psychological and physical barrier I have no intention of breaking. I am under the doctor for depression related CBT.
I think the key point is I was such a mess that I didnt know how to enjoy anything else in life. I just didnt know and I didnt want people bothering me. I wonder about self destruction , depression and the mind taking over to get its own fixes. It can seem so weird and complex if I think about it too much.
As the Liverpool footie chant goes ' you'll never walk alone '
It's also damaging too recovery to ' walk alone!!'
ie, don't isolate, talking and connecting is good..
Happy won't make you money.
Money won't make you happy.
Thinking of the answer, rather than the question.....
80% of success is showing up..
Woody Allen.
Failure to prepare. Prepare to fail.
Who knows..
Don't expect any one to look at the world from your addicted fogged eyes.
R&D
When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves. - Viktor E. Frankel
Recovery is akin to making a London bus driver smile.
If you work at it, it eventually happens.
Volcano
The addict in denial is never wrong.
V.
Resentment, green eyed envy and bitterness is a friend of denial abstinence.
Abstinence is the start, not the ending.
V.
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