Will You Turn Down Your Old Friend

[fortunecrypto]

THIS IS THE SITUATION: You are undergoing treatment for gambling addiction for two months already and only your family knows it, then one day one of your long-time buddies who you used to accompany to gamble in casinos wants to treat you for a night in a casino, and you have not seen each other for a very long time and he just want to reminisce old times.
Will you turn him down or agree to go to the casino for old time's sake.

[madnessteat]

^

I don't think it's a good idea to go to a casino in that case, as a friend will probably talk you into gambling for a while and the two months you've spent on treatment will have been wasted. You can explain your situation to your friend and make an appointment somewhere else where you can also have a good time, like a strip bar, a cafe, etc. There are actually a lot of options.

[Mauser]

Obviously yes, why risk all the progress I made in 2 months fighting my addiction for a single night out? The risk of getting hooked again is too big in my opinion. I haven't experienced gambling addiction myself or among my close friends, all my information I got is from reading online. What I read is that the hardest step is to try and break the addiction by getting help. Taking treatment is the right way to recovery and requires hard work and determination. There can be relapse during the recovery, but good friends should help us rather than be a temptation. If he really is a long term friend than I would tell him of my problems and I am sure he wouldn't try to convince to still go with him. I think going for a nice dinner and some beers would be a good alternative to catch up and talk about old times.

[coinerer]

THIS IS THE SITUATION: You are undergoing treatment for gambling addiction for two months already and only your family knows it, then one day one of your long-time buddies who you used to accompany to gamble in casinos wants to treat you for a night in a casino, and you have not seen each other for a very long time and he just want to reminisce old times.
Will you turn him down or agree to go to the casino for old time's sake.

If this happens to me then i will never agree to go to the casino for old time sake. Because if I go to the casino again, the gambling addiction will attack me again.  And I will forget about that 2 month treatment and start gambling again. So I think if the decision is made to quit gambling then it is always better to avoid gambling. Otherwise it will never be possible quit gambling.

[Oshosondy]

He is your friend, you do not have to keep him away from knowing the truth about you, gambling become problematic for you to the extent your family got involved and you are undergoing a gambling treatment. Before family members do know that someone is gambling, the person would have been obviously affected financially.

You have to let your friend know that. There are other places you can meet like an eartery, a restaurant, a recreation center or other mind pleasing places, that would be the best to do.

If you are undergoing a psychological or medical treatment along, you can tell your consultant or therapist about it, if it is a good idea or not. But I believe he would tell you what I am telling you now. Best to fully stay away from gambling to fully recover yourself from gambling addiction.

[robelneo]

You have to be true to yourself and to your friend if you don't feel that this is the right time to go to a casino then tell your friend about your situation and maybe sharing your experience with your treatment will make your friend give up or moderate gambling if he too is also addicted to gambling, if he is a good friend he will understand and support you all the way, there are other ways to spend time together like drinking or watch a game, but not gambling while you are in therapy.

[TheUltraElite]

I am not addicted to gambling so I probably am giving a biased answer, but I would turn that down politely and explain the situation to the best of my abilities.

But for addicted gamblers going through rehabilitation, it can be tough and I can understand the sentiment behind this too. One can always offer something else in return, like having a coffee at a old times joint instead of gambling. Taking such a decision is a mature and a bold step towards consolidating that you are a changed man.

But I guess the ideal situations are not always going to work out, so fingers crossed.

[asriloni]

If im still in a process to avoid being addicted with gambling and then i will reject him. In fact that even if you are only doing it for a night and that would be affecting your process to avoid being addicted in gambling. In my opinion if you didn't wanna be addicted with gambling and then stay away from your friend or you can talk with him slowly and im sure that if he will understand with what you have said above.

[virasisog]

My answer would be yes because if I will not turn him down, I will just waste the times that I've tried to heal. Trying to heal from gambling addiction takes a lot of courage and it needs total dedication. I will just explain to that old friend what I've been going through. No need for me to feel shame because if he's a real friend, he will understand my situation.
Changing for the better needs a lot of sacrifices and you should be willing to give up the things that will push you to gamble again.

[jakelyson]

THIS IS THE SITUATION: You are undergoing treatment for gambling addiction for two months already and only your family knows it, then one day one of your long-time buddies who you used to accompany to gamble in casinos wants to treat you for a night in a casino, and you have not seen each other for a very long time and he just want to reminisce old times.
Will you turn him down or agree to go to the casino for old time's sake.

It actually depends on how committed I am to my rehabilitation. If I am just doing it because my family members are forcing me to do so, I will be easily influenced to go gambling again, especially with my long-time-buddies.

But if I am serious, I am sure, I will not be influenced to do otherwise. I will not waste the effort I have put into it, even with my old-time buddies. And I am sure, they would understand and respect my decision.

There are other things we can do too if they want to spend some time with me. I am sure if they want to reminisce about old times, we can do it without me getting in the way of my treatment.

[Solosanz]

Human need a social interaction which you will need a friend, but you're shouldn't forget no one will help you when you're in fucked up situation or in hard time, they will not help you. This mean it's your life, where you're have full control about your decision and you're have freedom to choose. Learn how to reject someone offer and should always accept it, do you think your old friend will help you to take rehabilitation if your addiction still not recovered 100%?

[coin-investor]

It's hard to turn down a friend but your situation is different you are in a healing period and there should be no interruption in that healing process, tell the truth to your friend and let him have the fact about your situation, I'm sure if he is a real friend he will even cancel the invitation and wish you well on your therapy, it's hard to undergo on a therapy you must be totally healed before you try to gamble, because by then you will have a new mindset and definition of gambling.

[Doell]

Honestly, it's better to politely decline the invitation if situation will only keep me addicted, a friend will understand if we explain current situation. If he doesn't understand how to be a good a friend, indeed we need friends but the priority is ourselves. I learned from my previous experience that a good friend will only come to support his friend, not bring him down to addicted again.

[Rruchi man]

THIS IS THE SITUATION: You are undergoing treatment for gambling addiction for two months already and only your family knows it, then one day one of your long-time buddies who you used to accompany to gamble in casinos wants to treat you for a night in a casino, and you have not seen each other for a very long time and he just want to reminisce old times.
Will you turn him down or agree to go to the casino for old time's sake.

I will turn down my old buddy, we can decide to meet elsewhere, but not in the casino. Chilling in a casino with him will be dangerous for the treatment I am undergoing which I have already giving as long as 8 weeks, a sign of seriousness... It will be stupid of me to try to ruin it. My family will be disappointed, and that's not a good example to set... I also will be disappointed in myself for seeing a temptation in front and not dodging it. My buddy will understand if he is matured in reasoning.

[Cling18]

There's a nice way to decline his invitation. If I will turn him down, that doesn't mean that I'm pushing him away and breaking the friendship that we had. I will tell him exactly why I have to decline his invitation politely. I will also suggest having at least a coffee or lunch out for us to bond again. There are still other ways for us to reminisce about the old times. I will value my treatment first.

[jrrsparkles]

THIS IS THE SITUATION: You are undergoing treatment for gambling addiction for two months already and only your family knows it, then one day one of your long-time buddies who you used to accompany to gamble in casinos wants to treat you for a night in a casino, and you have not seen each other for a very long time and he just want to reminisce old times.
Will you turn him down or agree to go to the casino for old time's sake.

Better say no in that situation, just keep it straight and you no need to explain anything all you need is to follow what you have been doing because you think that it may harm you in someway. There are lot of other places to hangout with friends so casino is not the only place for reunion and such things.

[ethereumhunter]

I will reject it and tell the truth that I am on medication for gambling addiction. I don't want what I'm doing to be in vain because I've been at the bottom of gambling and don't want to go back there. As an old friend, he should have seen how I gambled and maybe he also knew that I was addicted to gambling. But if he can't accept it, I understand and will let him go alone because I don't want to lose money on gambling. But I would advise him not to gamble at the casino and rather stay at my house to discuss various things. Did this happen to you, @OP?

[giammangiato]

THIS IS THE SITUATION: You are undergoing treatment for gambling addiction for two months already and only your family knows it, then one day one of your long-time buddies who you used to accompany to gamble in casinos wants to treat you for a night in a casino, and you have not seen each other for a very long time and he just want to reminisce old times.
Will you turn him down or agree to go to the casino for old time's sake.

If I am being treated I would be doing my family a disservice and if he is a true friend he will understand that I absolutely cannot betray the family.
Seeing friends is a nice thing, but then the friend goes off on his way and your family is always there to help you.
In short, for one night, I would not betray their trust.

[yazher]

This actually happened to me but in my case, it was not gambling but some kind of work that I cannot do anymore. What I did was, I accompany him to do some stuff that was good for him and constantly reminded him about the day we were good friends even when we don't do such work and he finally realized that I cannot join him anymore when going to that place and he respects my decision without having any hard feeling about me. Sometimes you can't be direct to the people when things got rough, you need some strategy to make them understand your side of the story.

[dothebeats]

This is an easy no. If he truly is my friend, he will understand that what I'm doing not only benefits me but also those around me. If he insisted in taking me into a gambling house, then he should understand that he crossed a line and I'm ready to forget that friendship until he realizes his actions. We can still hang out and do some other stuff and not necessarily gambling, and a true friend will respect the decision of his/her friend even if it means that some of the things before will not be applicable anymore.