Self-excluding from brick and mortar casinos

Folks,
If you self=excluded from brick and mortar casinos did that significantly help in your recovery?
I keep thinking will power can do it, but it does not work for me for long periods. Always eventually go back. Logically self exclusion sounds great, but it requires a serious decision.
Maybe the better question is Does anyone regret self excluding?

Hi 1Wiserman, I don't have any experience of real casinos as I have never been in one, but I know that self exclusion for my online gambling addiction was a massive help to me. I know without it I would have just carried on with the madness! Have I ever regretted it? Absolutely not.

Hi Gran,
Thanks for your thoughts. Intellectually I know self exclusion is the way to go, but to do that requires an admission of weakness. Guess one has to overcome one's ego and make the plunge.

Actually 1wiserman , taking proactive steps to fight back against an addiction is a show of strength , not weakness .

Addiction chemically alters our brain function . It's not a matter of will . It's a matter of taking any and all steps needed to return it to its former , normal state . If your thyroid was malfunctioning , no amount of willpower would correct it . Addiction isn't all that different .

You're trying to win this battle with foot soldiers while the artillery sits unused . You have so many weapons at your disposal . Use them all !

Hi New Sun Rising,
I remember when someone asked a gambler what his level of excitement on a scale of 1-100 was when gambling and he said 99, and then asked him what is was when not gambling and he said it was about 25, but that is OK and Good. To me, that is what some of us are up against. Your point is well taken. To use available tools like self exclusion takes strength. I just read the thread about stock market traders that goes back about four years and found it very educational. There must be many dealing with addiction and many that are addicted and do not yet realize it. I am going to try to Man Up and self exclude. Always looked at the casino as a place of refuge. Boy, was I delusional.

In my opinion, self-exclusion would mainly be hard because one has not really seriously decided to quit.
Obviously, if you don't self-exclude yourself from a casino, you are still free to go back anytime you feel like it, or feel compelled to. If you really don't want to self-exclude yourself from a casino, I don't believe you really want to quit gambling for good.

58 gambling I agree with your assessment completely.

1wiserman: Thank you for being honest about it.

58gambling wrote:In my opinion, self-exclusion would mainly be hard because one has not really seriously decided to quit.
Obviously, if you don't self-exclude yourself from a casino, you are still free to go back anytime you feel like it, or feel compelled to. If you really don't want to self-exclude yourself from a casino, I don't believe you really want to quit gambling for good.

I've been saying this for years! All I know is that I gambled pretty much everything I made for ten years and tried to quit countless times. Then I self-excluded on November 25, 2013 and I haven't gambled since. Is it possible I would have quit for good w/o self-excluding? No. Has my life become demonstrably better since I've quit? Yes. Was I really serious about quitting before I self-excluded? No.

More importantly, have I ever regretted self-excluding? No, not even early on. In fact the minute I did it I had these feelings that were new to me, they were pride and relief. When I drove home from the casino I knew I couldn't go back so I knew there was no chance my next paycheck would end up being wasted there.

Buster, you make a strong argument for self-excluding. Thanks for your input.