Top Posts March ‘08

• A Brief History Of The Twelve Steps
• A problem shared is a problem halved
• Abstinence and harm reduction
• Addiction in the Family
• Addiction is a disease, not a lifestyle
• Adult children of alcoholics can practice being normal
• Al-anon Helps Alcoholics Too
• ALCOHOL AND MEDICINE USE
• Alcohol and Pregnancy
• Alcohol and the Family
• Alcohol Characteristics and Effects
• Alcohol in food may get you drunk
• Alcohol is toxic and damages the brain
• Alcohol quotes
• Alcohol use during pregnancy dangers
• Alcoholic Family Roles
• Alcoholism at Home
• Am I an Alcoholic? – questionnaire.
• AM I CONTROLLING?
• Atheists, Agnostics and Alcoholics Anonymous
• Benzodiazepines Stories
• Best Practice Helping Plan
• Blackouts – What Happened?
• Brain damaged by alcohol
• Cannabis and mental health
• Causes & consequences of alcohol-related brain shrinkage
• Changing Roles in the Family Disease of Alcoholism
• Children of Alcoholics Have Different Emotional Responses
• Controlled drinking?
• Coping With Stress
• Cough Medicine Abuse
• Dark Chocolate OK by Doctors
• Definition of Codependency
• DENIAL AND RECOVERY
• Detachment with love
• Dr Bob’s story of the AA Camel
• Drinking Causes Gout Flareups
• Drunkorexia = Anorexia + Alcohol Abuse
• DT’s – the Delirium Tremens
• Effects of gambling addiction
• Ego Quotes with Narcissistic Tendencies
• Emotional Bankruptcy or Alexthymia
• Facial features of fetal alcohol syndrome
• FDA Steps Up Warnings on Chantix
• Forgiveness and Anger
• Functional and Dysfunctional Couples
• George W. Bush’s Sobering Talk on Addiction
• God Help Me, Spiritual Pleasures can Replace Drug Addiction
• Harm to Partners, Wives, Husbands of Alcoholics
• Harmful Effects of Alcohol on Sexual Behviours
• Helping an Alcoholic is Possible
• How alcohol affects the drinker
• Is Alcoholism A Disease?
• Just for today card
• Little eyes, little ears
• Maturity of Mind Through a Spiritual Awakening
• Methadone and alcohol abuse don’t mix
• Narcissism and alcoholism recovery
• New Life for Families of Alcoholics
• Overeaters Anonymous
• Partner Enabling of Alcoholism
• Patterns of Co-dependence and ACOA’s
• Physical Effects of Alcohol on Women
• PRAYER and MEDITATION FORMULA
• Professional Alcoholism Training
• Recognizing Co-Dependency
• Recovery MP3 tracks for all 12-Step Fellowships
• Releasing angry resentment
• Self-Help Links
• Sleep problems affect alcoholism recovery
• Smoking and Erectile Dysfunction
• Styles of Enabling Behavior
• Taking Oxycodone / Oxycontin Safely
• The AA Recovery Paradoxes
• The Adult Children of Alcoholics Laundry List
• The Dynamics of an Alcoholic’s Family
• The loneliness of an alcoholic doctor
• THE WOUNDED SPIRIT
• Twelve Step Development
• Twelve Steps of Sponsorship
• Types of Dysfunctional Families
• Wellbriety Recovery for Native Americans
• What Addicts Need; in Newsweek
• What is ACOA Co-dependency?
• What is Alcohol Harm Reduction?
• What is alcoholism?
• What is Sexual Addiction?
• Woman’s story inspires alcoholics
• Young adults in denial about alcohol abuse

Recovery from Compulsive Gambling

Author shares his journey of recovery from compulsive gambling

Looking back on it, Bill Lee, author of Born to Lose: Memoirs of a Compulsive Gambler, realizes that his gambling addiction began in the third grade when he would wager his cherished baseball card collection in “pitch the card” contests during recess. Soon he was pitching pennies and nickels against other kids on the playground. By age 10, he was playing blackjack and poker and finding other creative ways to gamble.

He recalls: “When it was raining outside, the window in my classroom served as a game of chance, as my classmates and I picked individual droplets and wagered on their race to the bottom of the pane.”

After decades of accumulating and losing small fortunes, Lee forfeited everything he owned at a blackjack table when his winning streak spiraled into a devastating loss.¿ By that time his marriage had failed, his teenage son had run away from home, and his thoughts were suicidal. Lee’s journey of recovery has been a fragile but hopeful one, with Gamblers Anonymous (GA) at its core.

Lee’s experience underscores the progressive nature of compulsive gambling–a treatable addiction characterized by increasing preoccupation with gambling, a need to bet more money more frequently, restlessness or irritability when attempting to stop, and loss of control manifested by continuation of the gambling behavior in spite of mounting, serious, negative consequences.

According to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), 2 million (1 percent) U.S. adults are estimated to meet the criteria for pathological, or compulsive, gambling in a given year.

Another 4-8 million (2-3 percent) are considered “problem gamblers,” meaning they do not meet the full diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling, but they are experiencing problems due to their gambling behavior. Only two states (Hawaii and Utah) do not have legalized gambling.

Gaming is the fastest growing industry in the United States, and gambling is the fastest growing addiction. No longer just a problem for male adults, now youth, the elderly, and women are being affected in record numbers. For every compulsive gambler, it is estimated that five others are affected by the addiction. In his book, Lee stresses the importance of Gam-Anon, a mutual-support group for the loved ones of addicted gamblers.

“Gam-Anon members sometimes envy spouses of addicts in other fellowships whose drug of choice is alcohol, food, or sex,” writes Lee. “At least with those addictions, the healing can begin as soon as the addiction is in remission; whereas in gambling, the financial damage can last a lifetime and beyond.”

According to GA, once a gambling addict, always a gambling addict. “The first bet to a problem gambler is like the first small drink to an alcoholic. Sooner or later he or she falls back into the same old destructive pattern,” their Web site states. In GA, members work the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) that have been revised to reflect an addiction to gambling. Like AA, GA is a microcosm of our society. Young and old, rich and poor, professionals and blue-collar, men and women of a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds gather to listen to and support their fellow members. In describing his own GA group, Lee writes: “Everyone present has bounced a check, faced bankruptcy, and at least contemplated suicide. More than half are recovering from multiple addictions. A few proclaim that gambling is harder to kick than heroin and crack.”

Like alcoholism, compulsive gambling can be thought of as a “family disease.” Lee traces the addiction back at least three generations in his own family, and he writes poignantly about the effects his obsessive gambling had on his own son. But, like alcoholism, the disease cycle can be interrupted when compulsive gamblers take an honest look at their destructive behaviors and get the help they so desperately need.

To learn more about compulsive gambling and recovery for individuals contact GA at http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/. For information on National Council on Problem Gambling, visit http://www.ncpgambling.org/ or for family and friends of problem gamblers see Gam-Anon at http://www.gam-anon.org/

Alive & Free is a health column that provides information to help prevent substance abuse problems and address such problems. It is created by Hazelden.

See also;

• Did You Grow Up With A Compulsive Gambler?
• Six types of gamblers

Signs of Compulsive Debting

Signs of Compulsive Debting

1. Being unclear about your financial situation. Not knowing account balances, monthly expenses, loan interest rates, fees, fines, or contractual obligations.

2. Frequently “borrowing” items such as books, pens, or small amounts of money from friends and others, and failing to return them.

3. Poor saving habits. Not planning for taxes, retirement or other not-recurring but predictable items, and then feeling surprised when they come due; a “live for today, don’t worry about tomorrow” attitude.”

4. Compulsive shopping: Being unable to pass up a “good deal”; making impulsive purchases; leaving price tags on clothes so they can be returned; not using items you’ve purchased.

5. Difficulty in meeting basic financial or personal obligations, and/or an inordinate sense of accomplishment when such obligations are met.

6. A different feeling when buying things on credit than when paying cash, a feeling of being in the club, of being accepted, of being grown up.

7. Living in chaos and drama around money: Using one credit card to pay another; bouncing checks; always having a financial crises to contend with.

8. A tendency to live on the edge: Living paycheck to paycheck; taking risks with health and car insurance coverage; writing checks hoping money will appear to cover them.

9. Unwarranted inhibition and embarrassment in what should be a normal discussion of money.

10. Overworking or under earning: Working extra hours to earn money to pay creditors; using time inefficiently; taking jobs below your skill and education level.

11. An unwillingness to care for and value yourself: Living in self-imposed deprivation; denying your basic needs in order to pay your creditors.

12. A feeling or hope that someone will take care of you if necessary, so that you won’t really get into serious financial trouble, that there will always be someone you can turn to.

Debtors Anonymous

How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt and Live Prosperously*: *(Based on the Proven Principles and Techniques of Debtors Anonymous) by Jerrold Mundis Read more about this title…

Recovery from Debt

The Tools for Recovery of Debtors Anonymous

Action is the magic word. We have found the following actions essential to our recovery.

Abstinence

We practice abstinence by not incurring unsecured debt one day at a time. Unsecured debt is any debt that is not backed up by some form of collateral, such as a car, house, etc.

Meetings

We attend meetings at which we can share our experience, strength and hope with one another. Unless we give to newcomers what we have received from D.A. we cannot keep it ourselves.

Anonymity

We practice anonymity, which allows us freedom of expression by assuring us that what we say at meetings or to other D.A. members at any time will not be repeated.

The Telephone

We maintain constant contact with other D.A. members by exchanging telephone numbers. We make a point of talking to other D.A. members before and after taking difficult steps in our recovery.

Sponsor

Many of us find it extremely helpful to select a sponsor. A sponsor is an abstinent member of D.A. who is usually more experienced in working the Twelve Steps. The sponsor aids us in implementing our action plan and in working the Steps.

A.A. Literature

We study the literature of Alcoholics Anonymous to strengthen our understanding of compulsive disease. We can identify with many of the situations described therein by substituting the words “compulsive debt” for “alcohol.”

Awareness

We maintain awareness of the danger of compulsive debt by taking note of bank, loan company and credit-card advertising and by reading news accounts of its effects.

Debtors Anonymous

Addiction & Recovery for Dummies by Brian F., PhD Shaw, Paul, PhD Ritvo, Jane, D.Phil Irvine Read more about this title…