Experience article

"The conversation really got to me"

Last Sunday I had a call with a counselor. This conversation felt comfortable from the beginning. The counselor listened carefully to me and after about 5 to 10 minutes told me about his own ex gambling behavior and that he had been gambling free for 2.5 years. The recognizable stimuli and relapses of both made it easy to talk about my gambling problem.

I also received good tips from the counselor. For example, this was about why gambling is no longer an option for us. That I am extremely sensitive to these gambling stimuli and that I should not want this anymore. The disadvantages of gambling do not outweigh the advantages. The counselor has invited me to the Agog discussion group.

I have been thinking about this this week and I am open to this help! We called this broadening the track of not gambling. Opposite is the mistake I have made 100x to fall back into the thoughts of playing innocently which almost always ends up in Extreme amounts and shame/gut pain.

The conversation really got to me. I have discussed it with my partner but also with friends and it just feels right!