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Has anyone here ever had an addiction?

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Reply 300

InternetGangster

Original post by ANIGAV

I am addicted to talking to myself but I rarely listen.

mindphuck

Reply 301

Jay84

Original post by King Leonidas

Jesus, how are you coping with the addiction now? What kind of gambling was you doing, I think I can gues...

Im currently in a psychiatric ward on a section and my benefits have been stopped so I have been able to avoid gambling for nearly a month. I gamble on anything and everything bit for the last few years it has mostly been roulette.

Don't know what will happen when I am released. Hopefully I will have somewhere to stay and when my benefits are started I will try to have them paid to a friend to look after for me.

I am also waiting to get into a rehab. I think I missed my place due to being locked up here where they were unable to contact me so I am not sure if I will get a second offer - I had been waiting since september.

Reply 302

Anonymous #20

I have dermatillomania which is an addiction to picking at / squeezing your skin. It's horrible - my face and breasts and stomach are covered in scabs and scars which I try to cover with makeup.

Reply 303

Elliottleew

Hey mate, download or buy Allen Carr 'how to quit gambling easy' or something... I was an addict with gambling, took my fiancé away, my family, even nearly my life on two occasions. A gamblers situation has never got better by just carrying on... I bet when you win it's because of your skill and when you lose it's down to luck? Read the book, I don't feel I miss gambling in the slightest! Also also gamcare is a great forum for recovery!

Reply 304

Jay84

Original post by Elliottleew

Gamcare is total crap and is just a token offering by the industry to deal with problem gambling. I have already seen a few gamcare counsellors.

Also, no offence mate but i am well past the deluded stage of gambling so i am not under any allusions about what it is. When i win it is because I gamble an exceptional amount of money and thus am likely to get back about 94% of each pound I turnover. When i lose, it is because I turnover a hundred or more times as much money as I enter the bookies/casino with therefore the payout percentage of my original stake becomes diminishingly smaller until there is less than half a percents probability that i will leave with so much as a shilling to my name. i don't think I ever had any of those delusions in the first place and have always been pretty genned up. I am at the stage where my life is in total chaos and i need intensive, preferably residential rehab to get me back into housing, work and real life in general. A gimmicky book won't help either.

Reply 305

King Leonidas

Original post by Jay84

Keep your head up brother, you'll make it :yy:

Reply 306

Elliottleew

Fair enough... It seems clear you aren't doing it because it's an addiction but rather it is a choice with you. It's helped every single gambler I know, by removing the fact that when they 'stop' gambling, they aren't using willpower so don't feel there is any need to gamble, it becomes meaningless in their lives. The only reason I've known from gamblers to fail to quit is because they relapsed as they felt they were missing out on something. Ie... If a smoker used willpower then they will always believe they are missing out on a cigarette... But they aren't if you understand addiction. The relapse rate in gambling is much higher than the book ... And the library will provide it free of charge if you can't afford it! I know when I was a gambler I'd often want to quit but lie to my myself about quitting as it was hard and I'd always relapse. But I also know that when I reached a stage where I had enough I'd try anything to quit! Think you need to change your mindset or you'll gamble straight after rehab. Willpower won't work! I'm sure you have mental health and I do too, extremely bad mental health... But as you know all about gambling illusions then you'll know the physical effect of gambling via chemicals so you will be aware that of course you have mental health issues! I've been sectioned 8 times and only thought gambling was making it worse but it's more than that you'll realise when you quit. Good luck. You have a choice of freeing yourself from prison by removing the lies you are unaware of you telling yourself or live a life of misery giving much more away than your money ... You are even giving away your freedom.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 307

natninja

Cigarettes and Magic: The Gathering...

Reply 308

Jay84

Original post by Elliottleew

Fair enough... It seems clear you aren't doing it because it's an addiction but rather it is a choice with you.

All addiction involves choice. It isn't as clear cut as you make it out to be. There is always a choice that is present under multiple circumstance, states of mind, and weakness to impulse response. It doesn't matter who you are or what you are addicted to.

It's helped every single gambler I know, by removing the fact that when they 'stop' gambling, they aren't using willpower so don't feel there is any need to gamble, it becomes meaningless in their lives.

That sounds familiar, it is what everyone in the cult of GA or any other type of religeon or anyone else who views Allen Carr or any other book as near mythical.

The only reason I've known from gamblers to fail to quit is because they relapsed as they felt they were missing out on something. Ie... If a smoker used willpower then they will always believe they are missing out on a cigarette...

Well no offence but you are woefully inexperienced and naive about addiction in that case. I have always been a smoker as well and like with gambling I have given up and relapsed multiple times. I haven't gone back to that because I believed I was missing out. I guess you could say the reason for that was failure to control impulse and the attitude that I would rather have relief from a cigarette even if theu ultimately mean an early death.

The same with gambling. I have given up and relapsed, not because I thought I was missing out but bevause when faced with impulses I get to the stage where I just don't care if it will kill me anymore.

But they aren't if you understand addiction. The relapse rate in gambling is much higher than the book ... And the library will provide it free of charge if you can't afford it!

And you, my friend, clearly don't know anything about addiction.

Where did you read that statistic? Let me guess, in the book itself? You sound like GA members who tell you everyone who goes and listens is cured. Well less biased statistics disagree.

Allen Carr is jusy cheap pop psychology. I read his smoking book. Sure it can help some people but it is far from the panacea you make it out to be.

Why doesn't he also write easy way to kick skag? Easy way to kick booze?

Lifestyle addictions are generally more complex than you or he would believe and proper treatment needs a more holistic approach.

I could sit here reading allen carr till the cows came home but when I am released I am still a homeless man with bipolar disorder that I am unable to get medical help with and I will be cold, hungry with no money, friends or family. Maybe you can't see it but dealing with some of those problems so I am in a better plave in life whereas when I get the impulses I dont think "my life is ****ed and I will die soon anyway" is going to be more effective than some ****ing pamphlet.

I know when I was a gambler I'd often want to quit but lie to my myself about quitting as it was hard and I'd always relapse. I also know that when I reached a stage where I had enough I'd try anything to quit!

I reached that stage over 5 years ago. I have tried a lot of different approaches (including books like your allen carr) I have reached the stage where I need more intensive help of I am gonna do this right.

Think you need to change your mindset or you'll gamble straight after rehab. Willpower won't work!

And neither will a pop psychology pamphlet either mate.

I'm sure you have mental health and I do too, extremely bad mental health... But as you know all about gambling illusions then you'll know the physical effect of gambling via chemicals so you will be aware that of course you have mental health issues!

Again, in your naive I'll believe anything I read and stereotype everyone mind you have oversimplified things. I was mentally ill /before/ I was a degenerate seriously addicted gambler.

As numerous counsellors, doctors and psychiatrists have said - the two things are linked but it isn't as simple as one causing the other. In reality both exacerbate the other but to say stopping gambling solves all mental issues is just living in a dream world. I have given up before, sometimes for months yet I have still had mental health relapses/episodes and gone back to gambling and other self damaging behaviours.

I've been sectioned 8 times and only thought gambling was making it worse but it's more than that you'll realise when you quit. Good luck. You have a choice of freeing yourself from prison by removing the lies you are unaware of you telling yourself or live a life of misery giving much more away than your money ... You are even giving away your freedom.

And exactly what lies am I telling myself then mate?

Sorry but I think you know **** all and are too quick to assume. You think I should stop trying to get into a rehab with a truly excellent success rate (measured after years rather than weeks or months) to take your advice on reading a ****ing book?

No wonder you were sectioned 8 times - your delusions are fiercer than any I have suffered from.

Music

Original post by Ollieeeee

Of course I can say you have a lack of self control. You are absolutely delusional if you think otherwise.

Addictions are the product of a lack of self control. Yes I would say that alcoholism and drug addictions are a direct result of a lack of self control. Some people get addicted to alcohol because they lack self control, some people get addicted to Heroin because they lack self control. You can try and make excuses but there is no getting around the fact that the only reason addiction exists (unless forced) is because of a lack of self control.

I know it's been ages since you posted that but you're just wrong. You can't reduce addiction to self control. There are a lot of factors, which self control is only a part of.

Original post by InternetGangster

How can you be addicted to self harm? What did you feel when you were doing it?

I'm not her, but I think I can answer. It might start as attention seeking but something much more dangerous comes from it: the hit. Sharp pain releases adrenaline and if it's held over a little bit of time, opioids. You know how when people get tattoos, the pain dies down after a few minutes? Now imagine if a suicidally depressed person did that - they'd feel alive and maybe not even that depressed, for about an hour... self harm is a really terrible antidepressant in some ways.