Overcoming Gambling Addiction
The Gambling Addiction Recovery Book: The Cure to Overcoming Gambling Addictions, How Addicts Can Recover, Compulsive Gambling, Psychology, Gambling And Your Brain and Immediate Financial Actions Penrose, Lily on Amazon.com.FREE. shipping on qualifying offers. The Gambling Addiction Recovery Book: The Cure to Overcoming Gambling Addictions, How Addicts Can Recover. This item: Overcoming Gambling Addiction, 2nd Edition: A self-help guide using cognitive behavioural techniques by Alex Blaszczynski Paperback $18.31. Only 1 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon AU. Overcoming Gambling: A Guide For Problem And Compulsive Gamblers by Philip Mawer Paperback $27.34. Advice from the APA for those who care for a person with a gambling addiction includes the following: seek support, for example, through self-help groups recognize the person’s good qualities and avoid excluding them from family life remain calm when discussing gambling with the individual. Gambling addiction treatment. Overcoming a gambling problem is never easy and seeking professional treatment doesn’t mean that you’re weak in some way or can’t handle your problems. But it’s important to remember that every gambler is unique so you need a recovery program tailored specifically to your needs and situation.
Gambling addiction will get you stuck in a vicious loop of spending, losing, and trying again. The games and slots are designed to keep you trapped, making finding a way out extremely difficult for some. Gambling addiction can trigger many negative emotions like shame, guilt, anger, and sadness. Quitting will increase your income or savings and allow you the freedom to pursue more fun and productive things in your life.
It is important to always talk to yourself in a positive light. It will greatly encourage healing and motivate you to stay on course. There is immense power in words. Choosing affirmations that resonate with you is important. They need to be concise and you need to believe in what you are saying.
“Be careful how you talk to yourself because you are listening.” – Lisa M Hayes Author
Words have the potential to heal or hinder. Positivity is one of our greatest weapons in overcoming just about anything.
The first step to overcoming an addiction is accepting that you have a problem, to begin with. Noticing the toxic compulsions and destructive behaviors – acknowledging it and beginning to move forward.
You must be able to visualize yourself free from the constraints of gambling addiction. Your brain has started filing this behavior as a “must do.” Screaming that this desire is an absolute need and that it is ultimately stronger than you are. This is a lie. Changing the tone of your mental dialogue from negative to positive, along with any other recovery you may be seeking should create a thought pattern that will help you break free from addiction. Make sure to check if the online casino you play at has the option to limit how much you can lose for a double impact.
“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day” -Dalai Lama XIV
Start by rehearing your affirmations in your head. Say them all to completion. Do not remove words or take short cuts. Using a strong inner voice. Then say them out loud in a confident steady voice. Say them several times. Repeat mentally.
You may choose to record your voice saying your affirmations and set them to play before you fall asleep enabling you to listen for the duration of the night. Multiple studies have suggested that our subconscious retains a tremendous amount of information when presented in our sleep. This is called sleep conditioning. A group of German researchers did a study – published in Current Biology, where they were even able to incept participants with words from a made-up language. “What we found in our study is that the sleeping brain can encode new information and store it for the long term. Even more, the sleeping brain can make new associations,” said study author Dr. Marc Züst.
Try these affirmations
Here are some examples of positive affirmations you may choose to use.
I BELIEVE IN MYSELF AND MY ABILITY TO REMAIN IN CONTROL OF MY CHOICES
You are not a slave to gambling. Even if it may feel like it sometimes. You are in control of your own life and the things you want to do with it. You have lots of self-control and power over your decision making. You are strong and you have that capacity to choose things you want to do and that will truly make you happy.
I WILL SOCIALISE IN WAYS THAT I ENJOY WITH PEOPLE THAT RESPECT THAT I DO NOT GAMBLE
Going to the casino with mates may be free from temptation for some but, that is not the reality for anyone with addiction problems. There are many healthy ways to stay social and no longer be involved in the communities that support gambling.
There are plenty of clubs to join, places to visit, or hobbies to explore. This is a new opportunity to investigate what brings you joy. Find things that make you feel happy rather than anxious and tense. Perhaps there is a book club you can join or maybe you’ve always considered playing an online RPG. There are communities everywhere that are just waiting for a person like you to join. Activities like yoga or meditation are excellent for clearing the mind while still maintain a social atmosphere.
As Johann Hari famously states in his TED talk, “the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it is human connection.” Isolation is often a hindrance to someone that is recovering. Choosing to remain in positive company will offer additional support.
I AM NOT A GAMBLER AND I REMAIN STRONG AGAINST MY DESIRE TO GAMBLE
There are going to be times that the negative voice tries to convince you that continuing might not be “such a bad idea”. That “one more game” might be your big break. “if you stop right now, you’re going to miss your chance at a big win.”
But you are strong and you are not a gambler. You don’t want to put energy into this activity. You have other ways to spend your time and money. You don’t gamble.
It is important to always speak to yourself with love and kindness. Be gentle with yourself. Create affirmations that ring true to you and your journey. Repeat them often. You are powerful.
- Dr. Timothy R. JenningsMD, DFAPA
- 202013 Apr
All addictions—whether drug or alcohol related, sexual, or relational—meet the same definition: “the compulsive engagement in behaviors that bring short-term reward but long-term destruction.”
No matter the addiction that brings short-term pleasure, even if it’s accepted by society, if not overcome it will completely ensnare and destroy you. A range of treatments are available—from counseling to prescription medicine—but when God is included, people can experience real freedom. One of the most common addiction treatments are 12-step rehab programs, the bases of which were first published in the 1939 book Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Many conscientious believers have asked me not only whether these steps are effective, but also whether they are biblical.
But what does the Bible really say about addictions? Does God ever address these strongholds and give us a way of escape? While often presented generically so as not to offend non-Christians, these steps are designed upon the journey of Christian conversion and spiritual maturation, which is one reason these programs are so successful. You see, the primary purpose of the 12 steps is not merely to achieve abstinence from the addiction, but the healing of the heart, as unhealed emotional wounds often lead people to engage in addictions as means of self-medicating.
Let’s take a quick look at the Biblical support of the 12 steps of addiction recovery:
Step 1: Admit You Are Powerless Over Your Addiction
We must admit our inability to heal ourselves, that our lives had become unmanageable, and that we need a Savior.
“Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’” (Mark 2:17).
Step 2: Believe that a Power Greater than Yourself Can Restore You to Sanity
We must know the truth about God: that He is in the saving business—and not the condemning business—and He has the ability to heal us.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16, 17). “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all to myself” (John 12:32).
Step 3: Make a Decision to Turn Your Life Over to the Care of God
We must choose to open our hearts to God, as best as we understand Him, and let His power transform and heal us from within.
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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30).
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).
Step 4: Make a Searching and Fearless Moral Inventory of Yourself
We must stop running from the truth about ourselves and our brokenness. It is only as we are truthful that we can experience healing. The truth shall make you free (John 8:32).
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Step 5: Admit to God, Yourself, and Others, the Exact Nature of Your Wrongs
This step is about grace in relationship. As we confess our wickedness and experience love and acceptance from God and humans, our shame is replaced with love and empowers us to move forward in healing (John 8:1–11).
“When anyone is guilty in any of these ways, he must confess in what way he has sinned” (Leviticus 5:5).
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed” (James 5:16).
“If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1-2).
Step 6: Be Entirely Ready to Have God Remove All Your Defects of Character
We must have heart honesty. God cannot remove from us what we persistently hold on to. If we really want freedom, we must honestly let go of our addiction.
“I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me” (Jeremiah 33:8).
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:25–27).
“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Hebrews 8:10).
Step 7: Humbly Ask Him to Remove Your Shortcomings
We must commit to daily acknowledgment that we are powerless to change our own characters or natures and daily reach out to God for His transforming presence.
Gambling Addiction Treatment
“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:2). “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
Step 8: Make a List of All Persons You’ve Harmed and Be Willing to Make Amends to Each One
True heart change replaces fear and self-centeredness with love for other people, and self-deceit with truthfulness. We stop lying to ourselves, stop denying the truth, and instead become lovers of the truth—including the truth about our own histories. As we are healed by our Creator, our motives change and a genuine love for others grows within.
Addiction To Gambling Facts
Step 9: Make Direct Amends to Such People Wherever Possible
Except When Doing So Would Injure Them or Others
Both steps eight and nine are meant to help us apply new methods, principles, and motives to our lives—the process of thinking about the welfare and health of others rather than one’s self. In doing so, we move forward in God’s healing and deliverance.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew5:23, 24).
Step 10: Continue to Take Personal Inventory and Promptly Admit to Wrongdoing
We should do our best to prevent new mistakes from taking root and becoming habits. We daily examine ourselves in light of God’s design for life and health and apply His principles to our lives.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. … The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22, 25).
Step 11: Seek Through Prayer to Improve Conscious Contact with God
Asking Only for Knowledge of His Will for You and the Power to Carry That Out
We must grow in our relationship with God, exercising new healthy brain circuits resulting in the actual rewiring of our brains over time.
“Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:13–18).
Step 12: Having Had a Spiritual Awakening as the Result of These Steps
Carry This Message to Addicts and Practice These Principles in All Your Affairs
We must allow God’s love to flow through us to others—the more we give, the more we receive. “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).
Before concluding, there is one aspect that I have come to recognize as important in recovery from addictions that is not specifically addressed in the 12 steps: “bringing every thought into captivity to Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Science has revealed that even though we may avoid unhealthy behaviors (taking a substance, gambling, shopping) if we engage in the behavior in our imagination, the same neural circuits fire as when the actual behavior is carried out. This means that if we long for the addiction in our mind, if we imagine the “good ol’ days,” if we wish we could engage in our addiction but don’t merely because we know it will harm or kill us, then our brains will not rewire and our characters will not change. Such persons never experience genuine freedom from their addiction.
However, when we not only change our behavior but our thinking as well, over time our brains actually rewire and what we once found pleasurable will, in time, become repulsive. This is the freedom that unity with Christ brings!
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Timothy R. Jennings, MD, DFAPA is president of Come and Reason Ministries and is a board-certified psychiatrist with a private medical practice in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is a master psychopharmacologist, lecturer, international speaker, and the author of several books including The God-Shaped Brain: How Changing Your View of God Transforms Your Life and The God-Shaped Heart: How Correctly Understanding God's Love Transforms Us.