04-09-2011, 09:50 AM
Hello Freddie,
Do meetings help everyone? Hmm, nice question. I could say 'what do you mean by "help"?' I could enquire what you define 'everyone' as? I could even ask 'what sort of "meetings" are you talking about?' I'm not going to though, i'm going to try to offer you a bit of my experience and hopefully give you a little bit of hope.
My personal experience showed that attendance at meetings helped me to stop gambling. First of all though, I had to accept that I had a problem with gambling - after all I used to 'enjoy gambling'. I used to get a "buzz" from betting. I used to especially enjoy winning. In order to stop doing something that I used to enjoy, that began to cause problems, I had to decide that I needed to cease the activity. Although this decision did come to me in an instant (just after losing my food money and realising I had nothing to eat for two days) it had taken quite a while in studying the question deeply. I had tried most forms of gambling. I had tried various "systems". All the systems that I tried, failed. There is no doubt Freddie, that if you go out and try them they will fail for you too. Trying will make you poorer and could cost you more than cash. The only sure thing in gambling is that the bookmaker doesn't walk home from the races! Eventually I decided that I was fed up of walking home from the bookmakers/arcade/casino/bingo hall/card school..... skint and I made my mind up to go to a Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meeting. Attending GA meetings helped me in my resolve to not gamble and it put me in touch with fellow afflicted sufferers who were also trying their best not to place a bet. Going to GA didn't stop me gambling by meeting attendance alone. I had to put effort and hard work in. It did put me in touch with a range of people I would never otherwise have met - and some of them helped guide me onto the road to recovery. I found that being involved with a fellowship of people with a common goal (the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop gambling) was extremely helpful. Assistance freely offered, helped me personally immensely.
You go on to say "....reason i ask is i feel if i sit with other gamblers and talk gambling i am more likely to go straight gambling again even though i have no money i always find a way". Well I can't tell you how you feel - only you know that, but I found that attending the meetings meant I wasn't sitting with other gamblers. Rather I was sitting with other ex-gamblers. I found that although gambling was often mentioned and even talked about at length, the topic of recovery was talked about more. In the meetings that I attended, way back at the start when I decided to do something about it (my gambling problem) I found that I felt far LESS likely to gamble when I exited the meeting venue than when I arrived. I can only say that yes, attendance at meetings did help me.
Perhaps the question you are not asking is "will attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings help me stop gambling compulsively?". The best answer to that one would be "go to Gamblers Anonymous meetings and see how you get on".
Thankyou for posing the question. Hope my reply helps.
'Poster' David
Do meetings help everyone? Hmm, nice question. I could say 'what do you mean by "help"?' I could enquire what you define 'everyone' as? I could even ask 'what sort of "meetings" are you talking about?' I'm not going to though, i'm going to try to offer you a bit of my experience and hopefully give you a little bit of hope.
My personal experience showed that attendance at meetings helped me to stop gambling. First of all though, I had to accept that I had a problem with gambling - after all I used to 'enjoy gambling'. I used to get a "buzz" from betting. I used to especially enjoy winning. In order to stop doing something that I used to enjoy, that began to cause problems, I had to decide that I needed to cease the activity. Although this decision did come to me in an instant (just after losing my food money and realising I had nothing to eat for two days) it had taken quite a while in studying the question deeply. I had tried most forms of gambling. I had tried various "systems". All the systems that I tried, failed. There is no doubt Freddie, that if you go out and try them they will fail for you too. Trying will make you poorer and could cost you more than cash. The only sure thing in gambling is that the bookmaker doesn't walk home from the races! Eventually I decided that I was fed up of walking home from the bookmakers/arcade/casino/bingo hall/card school..... skint and I made my mind up to go to a Gamblers Anonymous (GA) meeting. Attending GA meetings helped me in my resolve to not gamble and it put me in touch with fellow afflicted sufferers who were also trying their best not to place a bet. Going to GA didn't stop me gambling by meeting attendance alone. I had to put effort and hard work in. It did put me in touch with a range of people I would never otherwise have met - and some of them helped guide me onto the road to recovery. I found that being involved with a fellowship of people with a common goal (the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop gambling) was extremely helpful. Assistance freely offered, helped me personally immensely.
You go on to say "....reason i ask is i feel if i sit with other gamblers and talk gambling i am more likely to go straight gambling again even though i have no money i always find a way". Well I can't tell you how you feel - only you know that, but I found that attending the meetings meant I wasn't sitting with other gamblers. Rather I was sitting with other ex-gamblers. I found that although gambling was often mentioned and even talked about at length, the topic of recovery was talked about more. In the meetings that I attended, way back at the start when I decided to do something about it (my gambling problem) I found that I felt far LESS likely to gamble when I exited the meeting venue than when I arrived. I can only say that yes, attendance at meetings did help me.
Perhaps the question you are not asking is "will attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings help me stop gambling compulsively?". The best answer to that one would be "go to Gamblers Anonymous meetings and see how you get on".
Thankyou for posing the question. Hope my reply helps.
'Poster' David