The Very First Step to Overcoming Gambling Addiction

[Betwrong]

There’s a lot of advice on this topic in various threads on the forum, but I thought it would be a good idea to gather it in one place. Of course, the very fist step should be going to a professional, I personally can say nothing against it, but what if someone doesn't want to? Should this person be left without an advice?

I will list my options.

1.Go to a professional;

2.Stop talking about gambling to anyone;

3.Try not to visit gambling sites for a week.

4. Stop gambling with borrowed money.

I personally prefer the last one, but your suggestions, guys, are welcome.

[coin-investor]

1.Go to a professional;

I prefer this one and consider it the best option. These professionals have studied, trained, and developed the right formula for a person to get out of addiction; they are not just advising, they customize and devise a plan based on the behavior and past of their client.
It may be costly, but it's guaranteed to work.

[TopT3ns]

There’s a lot of advice on this topic in various threads on the forum, but I thought it would be a good idea to gather it in one place. Of course, the very fist step should be going to a professional, I personally can say nothing against it, but what if someone doesn't want to? Should this person be left without an advice?

I will list my options.

1.Go to a professional;

2.Stop talking about gambling to anyone;

3.Try not to visit gambling sites for a week.

4. Stop gambling with borrowed money.

I personally prefer the last one, but your suggestions, guys, are welcome.

Very good type of self control to get out of the habit of daily addiction is to take a week off gambling sites. Although following a professional recommendation is always better, taking several steps individually such as ceasing to borrow money would give hope to the struggling party. Indeed that is a powerful people commitment can be regarded as a first step towards some major change.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

4. Stop gambling with borrowed money.

I personally prefer the last one, but your suggestions, guys, are welcome.

"stop gambling with borrowed money" is the last option you mentioned and I am commenting on this in particular.
Overcoming gambling addiction is not all about never gambling with borrowed money, because you and I know that there are alot of people who are rich, very rich to the extent that they can't possibly engage their self in borrowing money to gamble, but they are still addicted, what this means is that addiction to gambling goes beyond borrowing money to gamble.

Borrowing money to gamble is only one of the aftermath or effect of gambling addiction, because it is assumed that the moment a person becomes addicted to gambling, he will likely start gambling so frequently that he may end up losing all his money and then resort to borrowing to keep feeding their gambling urge.
To stop or heal from gambling addiction, one needs to tackle it from its root cause and this can be different for different people.

[rachael9385]

4. Stop gambling with borrowed money.

I personally prefer the last one, but your suggestions, guys, are welcome.

I also prefer the last point you made, a lot of people don't know how destructive it is to gamble with borrowed money, it makes addiction worse because after losing the money that you borrowed you have to think of borrowing from another source again to keep on playing to recover and the cycle continues.

[Eternad]

I think what truly helpful is the first one on the list which is seek a professional help for your addiction because they are the most credible to give an advice and handle your addiction properly.

All the suggestions on the list will surely be given too by the professionals and it’s much better because it’s tailored based on your personal circumstances if you will just being honest on your addiction declaration.

But it’s always prevention is better than cure. Gamble responsibly by limiting your expenses and dedicated time.

[Findingnemo]

but what if someone doesn't want to? Should this person be left without an advice?

We can give any advice we want but are they going to take any of it? They are not even ready to see someone who is the right person to treat the gambling addiction that shows the person is not willing to quit the gambling addiction and with such attitude, the quitting process itself going to be difficult.

Atleast talk someone about this, let them know that you want to quit and then things will starts to roll out.

[Sandra_hakeem]

I will list my options.1.Go to a professional;

2.Stop talking about gambling to anyone;

3.Try not to visit gambling sites for a week.

4. Stop gambling with borrowed money.

I'll go with 3 if whomever it was could straight up go "cold turkey". Too hard? Seek a professional advice. Let's not forget that non of these can be achieved if the person isn't willing to take accountability and hit a turn. The most difficult part of this journey lies in the mind, not the ways to find solution.

I personally prefer the last one, but your suggestions, guys, are welcome.

"stop gambling with borrowed money". That's what you suggest? Is this about reducing the level of gambling or overcoming the addiction to gamble? If you're still gambling anyway, how does that help?

[Hispo]

Arguably, the very first step which comes before we can even start to going to a psychologist or a psychiatrist is recognizing there is something wrong with our gambling habits, something we cannot control any longer and it is affecting the way we manage our life.
After that is correctly addressed and dealt with, one can try to access to those professional services. If one does not have any money in one's power to pay for those services, then the next step would be to join forums intended for people who want to get rid of the gambling addiction, it is easier to over-come addiction when one is surrounded by other who share a similar history to ours.

It would be even better if someone who wants to get rid of their addiction joined some group support in person, but I am aware those are not so common in all cities and villages, therefore, one needs to consider the online version of those.

[AmoreJaz]

I think what truly helpful is the first one on the list which is seek a professional help for your addiction because they are the most credible to give an advice and handle your addiction properly.

All the suggestions on the list will surely be given too by the professionals and it’s much better because it’s tailored based on your personal circumstances if you will just being honest on your addiction declaration.

But it’s always prevention is better than cure. Gamble responsibly by limiting your expenses and dedicated time.

There are some who can't afford to pay for a professional consultation, hence, should find alternatives how to address his gambling addiction. For me, the very first is to acknowledge that you really have problem with gambling and you are already in the addiction stage. Because if you are still in denial, I don't think you can really address your situation.
Now, once you recognize your situation, start thinking of the reasons why you want to change. Your motivation why you want to alter your lifestyle and remove gambling from your daily happenings. Because without solid motivation, would just go back again and again to this activity.

[Pandu Geddon]

The first step that a gambling addict must have to overcome their addiction is a strong desire to recover. Without having a strong desire, it will be difficult to carry out other methods, as you mentioned. When you go to a professional, what is done is to increase your confidence to recover and get out of your addiction. If you are confident in your recovery, you will have the strength to undergo rehabilitation.

[Doan9269]

All these would have been made irrelevant if we had never fallen into the role of an addicted gambler, this is why we often emphasize more about prevention being better than cure, because all these measures we are saying to overcome addiction are only better said than done, curbing addiction is not that easy we all know, and the more the reason why we advise that people should avoid in discipline act of gambling so that they don't get addicted at the course.

[panjul07]

For me, the first step to overcome gambling addiction is that we should beat ourselves by realizing and accepting that we have a problem in our gambling activity.
Second step is of course "a strong will to overcome it" because without a strong will to overcome it, even going to professionals many times wont be effective.
Once we realize it and we have strong will to overcome it the we can go to professional as additional help.
The point I want to say is that it should start from ourselves not from others including professionals.
Of course it is possible that professional can be a start that make us realize that we do something wrong but if we do not realize it first, less likely we will be willing to go professionals.

[Proty]

 until an addicted gambler made up his or her mind to stop gambling there is no amount of advise that is going to help him or her. The best thing for someone that wants to quit gambling is for them to reach a decision and then look for other activities that they  will occupy themselves with because most at times being idle can also be the reason why most people often gamble.
The first step to overcome addiction is to identify the negative effect of it by so doing the urge to stop gambling will be strong.

[HelliumZ]

OP, all the important steps mentioned above are enough to stop a gambler from gambling, but if a gambler talks well with a professional or consults well with a good psychological doctor, he can free himself from the terrible effects of gambling very quickly.
He must take some other important steps, such as consulting with family elders, and if he fails in that too, he can be sent to a rehab center on the advice of a good psychological doctor.
However, he should be placed in an environment where the chances of him participating in gambling are very low and he should be asked to hang out with friends who are completely free from gambling. If he is placed in such an environment, then he will definitely be able to gradually stop gambling.

[Mhizlove]

Well I will say, first let people accept that there is problem because if we do not admit these steps will be very hard to follow and another thing also we should set limits for ourselves, money and time limits once you reached that stage stop and no excuses because there are also some things that can occupy your mind when you feel the urge coming things like talking with friends,learn skills,watch football because an idle mind they say is the devil's workshop and can also push gambling thoughts too.


Less I forget also avoid things that will trigger the mind like odds pages, betting apps or friends that all they do talk about is betting. So you see with little discipline like this, it can help you to regain control before the habit will out grow or gets out of hand

[mak013]

There’s a lot of advice on this topic in various threads on the forum, but I thought it would be a good idea to gather it in one place. Of course, the very fist step should be going to a professional, I personally can say nothing against it, but what if someone doesn't want to? Should this person be left without an advice?

I will list my options.

1.Go to a professional;

2.Stop talking about gambling to anyone;

3.Try not to visit gambling sites for a week.

4. Stop gambling with borrowed money.

I personally prefer the last one, but your suggestions, guys, are welcome.

Just stop playing. That`s all.
You can you only yourself. First is to decide to stop the game. In your own head, only for you, without any conditions. If someone can suppose you - it would be nice, but you don`t need someone to stop the game. You must just to win yourself.

[Sim_card]

If you are addicted, the best thing to do is to go see a professional to help you out but firstly, the gambler should be ready to give up his addiction because if he's not determined to give up on addiction, nothing will work positively for him. An addicted gambler will definitely, borrow money to feed his gambling addiction.

[junder]

There’s a lot of advice on this topic in various threads on the forum, but I thought it would be a good idea to gather it in one place. Of course, the very fist step should be going to a professional, I personally can say nothing against it, but what if someone doesn't want to? Should this person be left without an advice?

I will list my options.

1.Go to a professional;

2.Stop talking about gambling to anyone;

3.Try not to visit gambling sites for a week.

4. Stop gambling with borrowed money.

I personally prefer the last one, but your suggestions, guys, are welcome.

The first step to overcoming addiction is to have the intention to fix it and after that comes action, and the first possible action is point three which is to not visit the casino for a few days/weeks or even months. If I'm not mistaken, I was like that when I started to recover from addiction.
 

[Saltysugar99]

I think it would be more effective if a person followed the steps in advance to prevent them from becoming addicted to gambling. If you control your emotions from the beginning and bet as much as you can mentally stabilize, you will be less likely to become addicted. If someone feels that they cannot control themselves, they should not come to betting its my own thinking .