“First you must understand and accept that there is always hope that you can stop gambling. Then read about all the choices and try as many as you want. If GA doesn’t work, try mindfulness. If it doesn’t work try DBT. Combine them - do GA, financial controls and mindfulness. Try them all. Just keep trying. If you do, you will find the right path. You will succeed.”
Quote by Kurt Dahl
“A little past 4 on a January morning in 2005, I dragged myself out of a casino north of Seattle after twelve straight hours on a slot machine, pushing the play button as fast as I could until I had lost all my money. I got into my truck and sat in the parking lot for several minutes. I finally decided that I would take the one path that absolutely guaranteed I would never gamble again. I unclipped my seatbelt, pulled out onto the I–5 freeway, and pushed the accelerator of my ten-year-old F-150 to the floor. To my surprise within a minute or two I was doing 110 mph. My goal was to find a solid concrete bridge abutment and plow into it head-on.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“Had I been successful in smashing into an abutment and killing myself, my death would not have been listed as a suicide, and certainly not as a gambling related suicide. I did have several beers that night so it likely would have gone down as drunk driving.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“If suicide in general is significantly underreported, documenting a suicide as gambling-related is orders of magnitude more difficult. As you well know, gambling addicts are very secretive. Even if a gambler had written a suicide note, and even if gambling was the real cause of their suicide, they probably would not say so.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“Gambling suicides are also frequently impulsive. My attempt to find a concrete wall to splatter myself on is, unfortunately, quite common for compulsive gamblers. I've had many conversations with other gamblers who tell the same story — looking for something to smack into on the way home from the bad beat at the casino.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“The therapeutic community has established that those with a gambling problem are impulsive. They are deficient in impulse control compared to the general public. In fact, in the 1980's, the DSM (2) identified compulsive gambling for the first time as a mental disorder and placed it in the category of Impulse-Control disorders. It wasn't until the latest version of the DSM (DSM-5 that came out in 2013) that compulsive gambling was moved to the addiction section.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“Another trait that gamblers possess is optimism. All gambling episodes begin with the positive belief that this time they just might win. Optimists generally don't prepare themselves to consider suicide. On the day that I walked into the casino on that day that led to my high-speed search for a concrete wall, I was happy, excited, looking forward to playing the slots.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“As I walked into the casino committing suicide was the very last thing on my mind. Yet twelve hours later it was the only thing on my mind.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“Can someone actually prepare for such an unexpected, unanticipated, overwhelmingly emotional experience such as the decision to commit suicide? The answer is yes, of course.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“The essential idea of this book is that the problem gambler must anticipate, even expect that in the course of their quest to stop gambling they will at some point face that horrible decision. That at some point they will seriously consider killing themselves.”
Source: Gambling Addiction: The complete guide to survival, treatment, and recovery from gambling addiction.
“On principle, she believed that anyone who really wanted to know her should be willing to do some work.”
Source: Evensong