Engaging in activities that provide a sense of achievement, such as learning a new skill, exercising, or pursuing creative outlets, could serve as new stimuli that gradually reduce the urge to gamble. It’s not an easy process, but with consistent effort, it might be possible to rewire those responses.
I agree with you because that way gambling addict will feel that they have other activities that are more enjoyable and can be done anytime without having to involve things like betting money, gradually all of this will lead gambling addicts to really reduce gambling activities.
In addition, there are many more positive activities or activities that can provide special stimulation for gambling addicts so that they can consider if what they do is much better than the gambling activities they have previously done.
But these various activities can only be done by people who really think about being able to cure themselves because basically healing and stopping gambling addiction must begin with the desires and intentions of each addict themselves.
He said that 'it was not an easy process' . That can have a double meaning. Not easy if our goal is to gamble less or quit it permanently because for sure the strong urge is still there especially if we are only getting started on combating it.
Another one that is not easy is to do some activities that he listed like learning a new skill and exercising. They are still very rewarding once we achieve them. He did not gave an easy example there but the one that I can think of right now is playing a video game. It is rewarding but can be dangerous like gambling if not controlled. Other acts are not gambling where we place our money as a form of bets but we still can spend money on them, like for example we buy a video game, we buy healthy foods, shoes, and others when we are exercising.
We buy a course (if it's about learning a new skill). I can say that it was still better than in gambling because we still can have the items that we bought, while in gambling, our money can only last a short period of time. I think that even the gambler has no intention to stop his habits, they can still be able to do the other activities that we talk above, and for those who are addicts, they won't say or do the steps to cure their selves if they are not serious about it.