[patrick_walsh]

Could a gambling addict be cured without going to therapy?

[charles]

Hi, I’m pretty sure this question got answered before. Unfortunately I think it was one of the threads that hasn’t transferred completely since the switchover to a new site. Hey ho, no problem – I can answer it again now. 🙂

First of all I personally don’t think an addiction can be “cured” anyway. If by “cured” you mean can an addict return to “normal” gambling then the answer would be no. However in the same way that an alcoholic can lead a life in sobriety we can also have a happy life without gambling.

Can we do this “without going to therapy”? Well again it depends what you mean. I am a Compulsive gambler and have never been to any sort of therapist, I’ve also not had a bet in a fairly long time now so the answer to your literal question is yes.

If you mean “Can we do it on our own?” Now that’s a different question. I certainly couldn’t. if someone is even looking at a site like this then they will almost certainly have tried to do it on their own first, equally without success or they wouldn’t be here. I tend to work on the basis that if we could do it on our own then we wouldn’t be in trouble in the first place. Luckily we don’t have to these days; there is lots of help available to us. This site and others, Gamblers Anonymous meetings, counselling, therapy, even residential support. I have in the past worked on the helpline here. The most important advice I could ever give anyone was to use the help that is available.

[Dunc]

Great question, and one that’s been asked so many times &I like Charles couldn’t have given up without help.

Working on the helpline the question is asked can I stop alone. For various I can’t say 100% no that recovery can’t be gained without help

1. I’ve not met every gambler, but as of yet I’ve not met a true CG whose found recovery without help

2. Not every Gambler is compulsive, they may just have used gambling recreationally and its run away with them for a short while, but we have to remember that this addiction is progressive. If you ask any CG whose accepted recovery when the y went from recreational to problematic to compulsive I doubt they could answer

A compulsive gambler in denial will be asking and answering their own distorted questions with their own distorted answers, the perpetual cycle will continue until someone can challenge what you’re saying and thinking. This then brings up the next question “when does a CG know that they are thinking in a distorted way” the one answer in my opinion is to talk to people who are living without distorted thoughts like other CG’s in recovery who have almost definitely done this and seen and know they can’t trust their own thoughts, this can be done at GA, GT, CBT, Counseling etc or any other support group… trying to find recovery alone will remove this option and that in my opinion is the biggest reason a CG cannot find recovery alone.

Then my last question is “why would we want to find recovery alone” ? the answer is normally “I’m Ashamed” or in a some instances the truth is a CG knows the above and hasn’t quiet yet got to the point of accepting the reality or his or her addiction

[Author]

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