Sharing Some Facts, Stats, and Personal Experiences. Problem Gambling 101. No Substances Required For This Addiction.

Sharing Some Facts, Stats, and Personal Experiences. Problem Gambling 101. No Substances Required For This Addiction.

 

If there is one thing I know inside and out?

It’s problem and addicted gambling on an intimate level and how this progressive disease is baffling and the building into a full-blown addiction. How it becomes a slow shift from being a once-in-a-while gambler to obsessive out-of-control addict! And how it got me years ago when having lots of time on my hands. While my husband was working out of town a lot. Being bored after work not wanting to go home to an empty house. It then became my only fun and excitement in life at that time back in late 1996. As it really ramped up all of 1997 and beyond.

It then progressed from there and my life wouldn’t be the same as it got “UGLY” for many years. All that can be read within my first book. That was the purpose of having my journals printed in book form and became a memoir titled; “Addicted To Dimes, Confessions of a Liar and Cheat.” It isn’t how to recovery from this addiction, it is the WHY and HOW of being a gambling addict.

After two times through a county health gambling treatment program, two failed suicide attempts, living with undiagnosed mental health disorders for years, finally properly diagnosed and  finally on the road maintaining recovery is when I learned some of the “ROOTS” and underlying issues to my addiction. Toward the end and about 7 months before treatment, lead me to abuse alcohol because addicted gambling alone was becoming, “Not Enough.”

Being informed, educated, and knowledgable about this illness was, for me, important since I now advocate about this disease that cost me way more than money wasted. I tell my sponsees it almost took my life, twice.  Now does that sound like gambling is just all about FUN, Games, and Entertainment? Not to those who become addicted.

So, courtesy of Wikipedia and “Gamblers Anonymous Site” — and in order for those to understand this disease who have NO experienced it or have not been “touched” by any addiction? I ask…

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What Is Addiction?

Addiction is when the body or mind badly wants or needs something in order to work right. (Cravings, Urges, and Triggers)…When you suffer addiction to something it is called being addicted or being an addict. People can be addicted to drugs, gambling, smoking, alcohol, coffee, , porn, and many other things.

When somebody is addicted to something, they can become sick if they do not get the thing they are addicted to. But taking more of the thing they are addicted to can also hurt their health. Some people who are addicts need to go to a doctor, hospital, or treatment to cure the addiction, so they no longer crave (want or need) …

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What Is Problem Gambling or Addicted Gambling?

Problem gambling is an urge to gamble continuously despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. Problem gambling is often defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others, rather than by the gambler’s behavior.

Severe problem gambling may be diagnosed as clinical pathological gambling if the gambler meets certain criteria. Pathological gambling is a common disorder that is associated with both social and family costs.

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Other Names Ludomania, gambling addiction, compulsive gambling

 

A DSM-5 has re-classified the condition as an addictive disorder, with sufferers exhibiting many similarities to those who have substance addictions. The term gambling addiction has long been used in the recovery movement.[1] Pathological gambling was long considered by the American Psychiatric Association to be an impulse control disorder rather than an addiction.
However, data suggest a closer relationship between pathological gambling and substance use disorders than exists between PG and obsessive-compulsive disorder, largely because the behaviors in problem gambling and most primary substance use disorders (i.e. those not resulting from a desire to “self-medication” for another condition such as depression) seek to activate the brain’s reward mechanisms while the behaviors characterizing obsessive-compulsive disorder are prompted by overactive and misplaced signals from the brain’s fear mechanisms.

Problem gambling is an addictive behavior with a high comorbidity with alcohol problems. A common feature shared by people who suffer from gambling addiction is impulsivity. (Mine so happened to be for Escaping or Coping with old childhood trauma).


Signs and symptoms

In order to be diagnosed, an individual must have at least four of the following symptoms in a 12-month period:

  • Needs to gamble with increasing amounts of money in order to achieve the desired excitement
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  • Is restless or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop gambling
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  • Has made repeated unsuccessful efforts to control, cut back, or stop gambling
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  • Is often preoccupied with gambling (e.g., having persistent thoughts of reliving past gambling experiences, handicapping or planning the next venture, thinking of ways to get money with which to gamble)
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  • Often gambles when feeling distressed (e.g., helpless, guilty, anxious, depressed)
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  • After losing money gambling, often returns another day to get even (“chasing” one’s losses)
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  • Lies to conceal the extent of involvement with gambling
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  • Has jeopardized or lost a significant relationship, job, education or career opportunity because of gambling
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  • Relies on others to provide money to relieve desperate financial situations caused by gambling

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I experienced all of the above from my gambling addiction and continued to get even MORE SEVERE! Did I use household money to gamble? YES. Did I gamble my paycheck in a few hours? YES. Did I steal and lie to get money to gamble? YES… AND MORE. It is a cunning sick addiction and disease.

THEN CAME? Suicide attempts!

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Suicide is a permanent solution to what is a temporary problem ...

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Suicide Rates

The gambler who does not receive treatment for pathological gambling when in his or her desperation phase may contemplate SUICIDE. Problem gambling is often associated with increased Suicidal Ideation and attempts compared to the general population. 1 in 5 will try suicide. Early-onset of problem gambling increases the lifetime risk of suicide. However, gambling-related suicide attempts are usually made by older people with problem gambling.

A 2010 Australian hospital study found that 17% of suicidal patients admitted to the Alfred Hospital’s emergency department were problem gamblers. In the United States, a report by the National Council on Problem Gambling showed approximately one in five pathological gamblers attempt suicide.

The council also said that suicide rates among pathological gamblers were higher than any other addictive disorder.  2.6% of people living in the United States are now problem gamblers. According to the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, evidence indicates that pathological gambling is an addiction similar to chemical addiction.


Studies have compared pathological gamblers to substance addicts, concluding that addicted gamblers display more physical symptoms during withdrawal. A myth needing known. Addicted gamblers DO go through a Detox and Withdrawal period. Deficiencies in serotonin might also contribute to compulsive behavior, including a gambling addiction.

 

Lastly, the Pathological Part of this ADDICTION:

Several psychological mechanisms are thought to be implicated in the development and maintenance of problem gambling.

First, reward processing seems to be less sensitive to problem gamblers.
Second, some individuals use problem gambling as an escape from the problems in their lives.

Third, personality factors play a role, such as narcissism, risk-seeking, sensation-seeking, and impulsivity.

Fourth, problem gamblers suffer from a number of cognitive biases, including the illusion of control, unrealistic optimism, overconfidence and the gambler’s fallacy, which is (the incorrect belief that a series of random events tends to self-correct so that the absolute frequencies of each of various outcomes balance each other out).

Fifth, problem gamblers represent a chronic state of a behavioral spin process, a gambling spin, as described by the criminal spin theory…

If you want more in-depth information about gambling addiction there is more informative information at Wikipedia here: about problem and addicted gambling.

~Advocate/Author, Catherine Lyon

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“And Now a Message From Our Recovery Sponsor”… Dr. Rev. Kevin T. Coughlin, of The Professional Institute of Higher Learning.

“And Now a Message From Our Recovery Sponsor”… Dr. Rev. Kevin T. Coughlin, of  The Professional Institute of Higher Learning.

Are Your Teens Playing Games with Their Lives?


We all know that gambling, and now internet gaming has been around for a long while.

What we didn’t know was about to happen with the internet and tech offerings and expansion that began in the late 80′ and early 90’s –that gaming and gambling options would be so accessible and continue to grow at a rapid pace as it has. No person better besides myself knows this than my dear friend and The Addiction Expert of Rev Kev’s Recovery World and now the new amazing coach, teacher, and trainer behind the new “The Professional’s International Institute of Higher Learning Online” .

So, I welcome and am honored to have Kevin Coughlin back to share some interesting facts about gaming and why parents need to be very privy to the time your kids are spending on their computers and what are they DOING on the internet …
Take it away Rev. Kev!   ~ Advocate Catherine Lyon 

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“A good coach asks great questions to help you remove the obstacles in your mind and to get you back on track in life.”  – Farshad Asl 

Recently, The World Health Organization added “gaming disorder” to the International Classification of Diseases. This newly identified gaming disorder causes “impaired control over gaming,” according to The World Health Organization. The decision to include internet gaming as a mental health disorder has not come without controversy; professionals from the American Psychiatric Association and other professional’s in the industry have made clear that they believe that internet gaming disorder is a condition that needs further study. Some mental health professionals don’t agree with the “gaming disorder” diagnosis, they think the label is premature. Many clinicians voiced that they believe that young people are actually using video gaming as a coping mechanism for anxiety and depression, which are on the rise in teens, according to the latest national research.

This new process of addiction should not be determined based on a short period of behavior. The World Health Organization stated that a diagnosis of having a gaming disorder should be determined based on behavior over a period of at least twelve months. If an individual’s personal life, social life, family life, work environment, or if they’re a student, their school environment is impaired by excessive internet gaming, these should be considered warning signs of addiction. Comparable with other addictions, despite negative consequences, there is a loss of control and escalation.

Experts believe that the causes of gaming disorder are quite rare and that only approximately three-percent of gamers may suffer from this addiction. There is hope for the three percent; however, more help is needed. A former gaming disorder addict, Cam Adair, was quoted as saying, “First just more prevention, there needs to be more awareness in schools. Parents need to be educated, there is a need for better resources and a need for more professionally trained interventionists,  recovery coaches and support services available.”

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Many parents have referred to internet gaming as “digital heroin!” Don is twenty-five-years-old, who just had his second child thirteen months ago, he lives with his girlfriend and the children at her parent’s house. Don works part-time and spends more than ten hours per day playing video games online. He spends every dollar he makes buying online video games and counts on State assistance to feed his children.

Some nights, Don doesn’t even sleep, he plays video games all night and then goes straight to work in the morning. He doesn’t spend any time with his children or his girlfriend. He doesn’t give his family any financial or emotional support. His girlfriend is on the verge of leaving Don and taking the children with her. His life is totally out of control because of online gaming addiction.

Dr. Vladimir Poznyak from The World Health Organization’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, which proposed the new diagnosis to The World Health Organization’s decision-making body, said, that there are three major diagnostic characteristics of gaming disorder: “One is that the gaming behavior takes precedence over other activities to the extent that other activities are taken to the periphery.

The second feature is impaired control of these behaviors, even when the negative consequences occur, this behavior continues or escalates. A third feature is that the condition leads to significant distress and impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning. The impact is real and may include disturbed sleep patterns, like diet problems, like a deficiency in the physical activity.”

The main features of gaming disorder are very similar to the diagnostic features of pathological gambling disorder and substance use and abuse disorders. Gaming disorder is a clinical condition and must only be diagnosed by professionals who are properly trained in this mental health disorder. The majority of treatment and interventions for gaming disorder are based on the methods and principals of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and other added sources of support.

Co-founder of Restart (One of the first US inpatient treatment programs for gaming disorder), Hilarie Cash was quoted as saying, “It’s time to recognize gaming disorder as a legitimate medical and mental health condition.”

Dr. Vladimir Poznyak (from The World Health Organization’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse) was quoted as saying, “Whatever the therapy, it should be based on understanding the nature of the behavior and what can be done in order to improve the situation. Prevention interventions may also be needed.” A licensed psychologist, executive director at The Telos Project, Anthony Bean was quoted as saying,

“The ICD diagnosis is not “appropriately informed since most clinicians — and the mental health field as a whole — do not understand the gaming population. And even most clinicians would probably agree that they don’t understand the concept for video games because they’re not immersed in that world or experience.”

Bean recommends that parents and other loved ones concerned about a much-too-avid gamer, ask questions to become as informed as possible. What games are they playing? Why do they find them interesting? Bean is the author of a guidebook for clinicians wishing to work with gamers; however, he has made it clear that he is not on team Poznyak when it comes to the latest thinking on gaming disorder. I believe that Dr. Poznyak is right on target!

Witnessing Don’s gaming addiction firsthand, there is no doubt in my mind that online gaming becomes a disorder when despite negative consequences, there is a loss of control and escalation and the person’s choices are even affecting his family in a negative way because of online gaming.

Anything that is out of balance in a person’s life that has negative consequences that are ignored is a potential problem. I think the writing was on the wall a long time ago when it came to gaming addiction. I’m surprised it wasn’t diagnosed sooner!

Some of the warning signs that parents can look for to help determine if there is a problem with gaming and their teen:

Long hours of playing video games.
 
On the computer or other online devices.

Poor personal hygiene.

Lack of self-care.

Not sleeping, playing video games all night.

Poor grades in school or skipping school.

Lack of interest in everything except video gaming.

Isolation and spending much time in their room.

Irritability and anger problems when not playing video games.

Compulsively buying video games and add-ons.

Not eating regular meals at regular times.

Unhealthy diet, impulsivity,  and irresponsibility.

Life out of balance, obsessed with video gaming.

Depression, anxiety, or mood swings.

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Remember, if you think that your loved one is suffering from a gaming disorder, this should be diagnosed and treated by professional clinicians. You should also remember that approximately three-percent of gamers suffer from this addiction and that behavior should be considered over at least a twelve-month period.

The last thing that anyone wants is a parent thinking that their teen has a problem because they played video games one afternoon for several hours and skipped lunch. It’s important to look at the big picture and not to ignore the facts. Should you have any questions, consult a professional who works in this field. Let’s all be informed and aware!

Rev. Dr. Kevin T. Coughlin Ph.D.
www.theaddiction.expert
Visit:  “The Professional’s International Institute of Higher Learning Online” .
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Sharing Some Recovery Friends, Facts, & Stats….

Hello Friends, Welcome New Visitors,

Sundays are my usual day that I like to surf the web, check on new websites of new friends I have met on maybe Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, & other recovery authors and such. I also do some research for my 2 books I’m currently trying in VAIN to finish. I came across an interesting “Article” on “USA Addiction Statistics of Addicted Gambling” and some of the percentages are SHOCKING, and some maybe off a bit. Here is a share of a few articles about addicted gambling facts & stats:

USA gambling addiction statistics

The biggest and the most powerful country always tends to have the biggest amount of both positive aspects in different life spheres and negative ones. Speaking about the gambling industry, everybody knows that it’s essence of such games that leads to negative consequences.

Affected Americans

According to American statistics of National Council, 3 million of adults are addicted to gambling. Another four to six part of Americans ~~ 13 million are just the mere problem gamblers, who are in one step from being addicted.  Today half that number is now college age young adults & late teens. This is really lamentable to hear, but what to do, if the inhabitants don’t see the limit of consumption, that must be balanced and controlled by them. Another unpleasant fact is that 50% of addicted gamblers are women; yeah, these weak creatures are involved in the gambling sphere, maybe because of relationship ruination or some other factors.

It’s really hard to abstain from gambling, if you see the signs of it everywhere: on the shelves of the supermarket there are lots of gambling books, that promise to reveal all the secrets to you and make you a millionaire; on TV there are hundreds of different shows, that also try to make you go to the casinos; and even the video games are rated “E”, which means, that everybody has a possibility to play. In the USA gambling has just become a glamorize action that swells everybody’s status.

Such names as Joseph Hachem that succeeded to be a great poker winner in 2005; Chris “Moneymaker” that has beaten the World Series of Poker in 2004 and Jamie Gold that took $12 million  in the casino, make others believe that it’s quite possible, and the greed get its way.

  • The most innocent gambler has to remember that he has 5% of chances to risk something that will change his\her life.
  • In the USA there twice as more addicted gamblers, than cancer patients.
  • Americans that live within 50 miles near the casino, have the doubled rate of going there and becoming addicted.
  • Each compulsive gambler in the USA just costs the economy approximately $16, 000 per year.
  • 25% of addicted gamblers have tried to commit suicide, and Nevada has been the center for such attempts for the last 12 years.
  • Harvard research presents that 92% of 80 addicted gamblers tend to relapse.
  • Between 4% and 8% of American youngsters become addicted nowadays.
  • 672, 000 American college students and 35 millions of teens are addicted to gambling.

American lifestyle is really dangerously affected by gambling. It increases another negative statistics in the USA, such as crime, fraudulent, and it is known that in the USA the cases of bankruptcy are double, due to gambling. Split families, a number of divorce cases all the negative outcomes will keep increasing, if the society keeps accepting gambling addiction.

Addicted gamblers’ zone risk

All the addiction types in general, whether it is alcohol, a drug or something else presuppose the greatest control disorder, abnormal behavior and just mind distraction.

Gambling is a real drug for addicted players, who continue returning back to the casino every day and wasting all money there. And they don’t care about the spouses, that have already packed their luggage to leave, or children who don’t eat much because of money deficiency.

Identification of addicted gamblers:

  • Addiction is like a competition, where you have to pursue great effort sin order to receive the winning prize. Almost each addict will be helped by the relatives and friend sand a specialist who will be curing them. But how to detect this illness? If you want to test yourself, whether you are in the risk zone of gambling addiction, first of all, you have to admit it, because the main problem of all the gamblers that suffer from this disease is that they really reject to accept the fact of addiction. The identification of addiction phases and types will help the doctors to cure the person in the appropriate way.
  • Identify, whether you are or somebody else is addicted by means of passing the best and the most credible addiction test,  which will help you to sort out your hesitations, by answering the simple questions. And then, you’ll have to do the next steps to the right and opportune treatment.

Addiction signs and symptoms:

Addicts can feel the symptoms of problem gambling themselves: it’s like a general condition of soul and body in the defined moments of life that is really noticeable. Do you conceal the fact of gambling? Has it become uncontrollable? Do you realize that you have started borrowing money without returning it? That’s bad.

  • The surrounding people will definitely detect the addiction to gambling, if they notice several signs. Change in mood, gambling preoccupation, tolerance and withdrawal are the visible display of the addicted gamblers……

 *Here is the MOST INTERESTING Article of them ALL….WHY?  Because I have what my “psychiatrist” calls “Addiction Depression” &  is also where my Agoraphobia disorder came from when AFTER I went into Treatment & into Recovery from my Gambling Addiction*….

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Who is guilty? Addiction Depression

Just think a little bit, what the first was: is addiction the main cause of depression or vice versa – depression is the main reason of addiction? They are intertwined so much, that this issue is really intricate to be completely discerned.

Dual diagnosis

Everybody, who has encountered problem gambling  on his life way, has felt the devouring depression, which can lead to the most negative consequences. And this depression can also start the compulsive gambling addiction, being the main reason of it: for example, if the particular gambler had suffered too much, he/she decided to escape from the reality into the particular betting establishment.

Depression doesn’t always accompany each gambler in the gambling disease: during the winning stage, the players don’t feel depression or stress; on the contrary, they are very happy because they have, at last, found the quiet shelter, where they are valued and pleased.  During the losing stage of the addiction phases, the player begins to feel a nonstarter syndrome, quilt and remorse in “one pile”. Such depression causes negative consequences, concerning both financial and social problems; complications can destroy a person completely: his/her psychological, emotional backgrounds’ spring.

As it was stated above, depression may be the first factor, which has caused gambling addiction: individual could have been depressed before because of some affliction, which led him into the gambling abuse. But this frames are so slight, it’s really hard to differentiate both states. Just take a look: gambling addiction is isolating disorder of demoralization; depression has exactly the same characteristic. But for the right treatment, the first thing, that must be done, is still to figure out, which came first. In this case, everything depends on an addict – he/she must tell everything, what he/she felt, why he/she felt it, and what feelings are roaming in his/her head at the moment.

All the feelings of addiction depression are really horrifying:

  • Stress, chaos
  • Despondency
  • Sleep deprivation
  • Helplessness, along with hopelessness
  • Self-esteem disappearance
  • Devouring sadness
  • Thought of suicide

The list may be everlasting, because, unfortunately, there are lots of negative feelings and states, which people can experience. The ruining combination of addiction and depression is very hard to cure. In this battle, the first one, which must be battered, is depression.  Such dual diagnosis, as addiction depression, which has its gambling as its cause, must be treated only by a specialist and with the full recovery program.
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***Yes, the beginning of Article 1 says that 50% of problem & addicted gamblers are WOMEN!  I was doomed in the very beginning of my gambling for just the “FUN & ENTERTAINMENT”value. SADLY, on the issues of a CURE from Addicted Gambling?
There is NONE. WE LEARN in Gamblers Anonymous Meetings that: “Gambling addiction can NOT be CURED, but can be Arrested”~~~ In closing, let me SHARE with you a REAL WOMAN’S SHORT STORY OF  HER ADDICTED GAMBLING EXPERIENCE. IT is a SHARE from my Good Friend & Author “Marilyn Lancelot’s” Website for Women Addicted Gamblers AT:

http://www.femalegamblers.info  *News & Support for Female Gamblers in Recovery* Here is a little about my good friend & Author, “Marilyn Lancelot”….

My name is Marilyn Lancelot and I am a recovering compulsive gambler. I visited my first casino in 1984 at the age of 53. For seven years, my boyfriend and I made the four-hour trek from Yuma, AZ to Laughlin, NV every weekend. I learned early on how to lie to my family and friends and how to sign my employers’ name to company checks. I considered suicide and planned it so it would like an accident.

Then one day the auditors discovered my embezzling. Horrified, I watched seven police cars pull into my driveway to take me away in handcuffs. I lost my job, home, life savings, my retirement, and my freedom. I had progressed from a Mrs. Cleaver type housewife to a Ma Barker type criminal. The judge entenced me to two years in prison and I’ll be paying restitution to my former employer for many years.

Until the morning of my arrest, my family had no idea of my gambling addiction. I remembered a statement I heard in AA years ago: If I did not take care of my problem, society would. And society had. The closest GA meeting was in Phoenix so we moved there so I could attend GA. I told myself that if I got sentenced to prison, I would some day go back to Yuma and start a GA meeting.

I spent ten months in an Arizona State Prison where there were no GA     meetings. I vowed that one day I would return to prison and start a GA meeting. After my release, I watched new women struggle at the regular GA meetings, unable to identify with the card playing, sports betting male gamblers. One day another gal and I started a women’s meeting in my     apartment and the women came and the women stayed. They felt comfortable at the women’s group.

I returned to Yuma with GA friends and started a meeting there and also at the Perryville prison. With the help of GA sisters, I publish a Women Helping Women Newsletter on the Internet. I try to give back to GA what the program has given me. I retired at the age of 72 and I’ve worked part-time for several years after my retirement to re-pay my victim. I now have more than sixteen years of recovery, “One Day at a Time”……

..ONE WOMAN’S STORY ~~ A Share From Marilyn’s Website….


I’m a newbie! 

I don’t have years or months free from my gambling addiction, but I am a gambling addict addicted to slots with 22 days of  freedom. I’m a 54-year-old female who had my first trip to a casino over 10 years ago to celebrate my brother in law’s birthday.
Wow, it was exciting to say the least. Over the next 10 years or so my gambling trips increased and the amount of money spent also increased. I was told over and       over again in the casino by my husband that “I” have a big problem and have become someone he does not recognize while in my gambling frenzy.

Of course I say, “Well it’s no big deal.” I brush it off in my own manipulating way and convince him all is well. I am in total denial, I just can’t admit I have a problem, not me! I can quit anytime I want to.

So I tried and tried on my own so many times without any success. Today as I write this I have lost my health, my job of 11 yrs, our home, all of our money and most importantly I have pushed most if not all of my friends and  family away to make room for my addiction. None of my friends or family have any idea of why I have become so distant, I tell them it’s from being depressed which is a truth without the whole truth. It is a very lonely place to be.

After crying and hitting an all time low I finally prayed and asked God to please help me. I searched the internet for a GA meeting place and found none in or around where I live. So I then sought reading material which included the books “Addicted To Dimes” by: Catherine Lyon, “Gripped By Gambling” by: Marilyn Lancelot, and some GA materials. Such powerful stories.

At the end of Marilyn Lancelot’s book “Gripped By Gambling“ it talked about her website “Women Helping Women” and  I looked it up . After reading stories and articles I put aside my way and started to correspond with Marilyn and admitted I needed help. It is the best decision I have ever made. These women have been here for me nonstop since my first email, with a loving support and a hope for better days ahead. All I had to do was let go of my pride and ask.

I’m not stupid, I know a long hard job lay ahead of me, but I’m so ready to have the help. Thank you, God. And thank you Marilyn for reaching out and calling me personally with sweet words of encouragement, the women here, and the GA program for my 22 days. I have a hopeful beginning taking it one day at a       time. My goal here is to reach out to a newbie who may be hesitating like I did at first glance to ask for help. I’m so glad I did. We’re all newbie’s at one time.

God Bless you all and me. Linda in MI

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*I can not tell all my friends here how much this letter TOUCHED MY HEART! I have no idea who this wonderful woman is, but to know she took the time to read my book, is a true testament, and WHY I WROTE my book in the first place, TO HELP THOSE WHO SUFFER from this *CUNNING DISEASE* & WE never know……it can SAVE A LIFE! I was very much like the woman myself. When my Gambling addiction, at the end, had ME on MY OWN knees wanting to just die, and attempted it! I don’t EVER want another Human Life be taken AGAIN because of Addicted Compulsive Gambling Addiction..*

God Bless ALL, and THANK YOU for coming by!
Author, Catherine Townsend-Lyon