Your top three Strategies

We already have an awesome thread with tons of strategies for people to try. When it come to fighting this addiction, we have to try everything until we find something that works. Well, what were the top three things that work for you guys?

1 - Giving my wife total control of my finances
2 - Tell my ENTIRE family (aunts, uncles, cousins, friends) about my addiction (I don't recommend it for everyone)
3 - Mindfulness and being aware when I have the irrational thoughts

Honorable mentions:
- GA
- Self-exclusion

1. Having a list of possible distractions at my fingertips for when the urges came on hard .

2. Telling a good friend about the extent of my addiction - every mortifying aspect of it .

3. " Getting rid of " my paycheck as soon as it hit my account . Bills paid , rent paid , almost all of whatever was left went to debt and the HM below .

Honorable mention : I purchased Visa gift cards each pay period to use for food , gas and assorted necessities . They can't be redeemed for cash .

1. When playing games like bejeweled or sudoku on an app, make sure that I am off line and I stopped getting annoying pop ups of slots offering free play.

2. Meditation and yoga.

3. Time to enjoy reading, cooking, watching a favorite movie and in the company of loved ones and other human beings.

Honorable mentions:

Too many to mention, all positive financially, spiritually and physically.

1. Playing the tape ALL THE WAY THRU (the tape in my mind.... so I WANT to go, what will happen -- I'll go and not leave like the million other times leaving w/ nothing, but what if I make some GRAND hit winning BIG BIG BIG -- the tape continues -- I'll be obsessed w/ how wonderful it is, how lucky I am, how fantastic g is, and I can't wait until I go back -- I will obsess about going back again and again (prob going back next day!) pulling me away from REAL life, from people, from joy, until I've spent more and more time chasing. Which is really just shoving it all back in for that rush again. it ISN"T about the money! if it was about the money I could stop after that big win )

2. EXCLUSION - life saving the first 90 days. threat of arrest did help me.

3. SUPPORT - family (somewhat) but mostly the GA fellowship.

(lots of online you tube re: gambling addiction, dr. fong, many online resources to understand the chemical / brain component -- took the sting out of lack of control, shame etc. my brain was driving my destruction)

Not sure I can give you 3 but here goes:

These days when I feel the urge to gamble, I actually think of all the negatives of the past gambling as hard as I can; now I find that even as I am driving en route to the gambling place, it does deter me, and I turn off and go shopping at a store or stop at a coffee shop or anywhere else to enjoy my free time. I remember about all the times how I lost a lot of money with the resulting misery and lowered self-esteem it caused. Inevitably, there's always that other voice that says, "this time will be different; you may win and it will be rewarding...." But the stronger voice says, you know this has happened too many times to believe that....most of all, I think about whether the risk of losing a lot of money and its terrible aftermath is worth the prospect that you may win a little and get some "free" money.......I have to think it's really not worth it....and happily and victoriously, I go another day without gambling.

58gambling wrote:Not sure I can give you 3 but here goes:

These days when I feel the urge to gamble, I actually think of all the negatives of the past gambling as hard as I can; now I find that even as I am driving en route to the gambling place, it does deter me, and I turn off and go shopping at a store or stop at a coffee shop or anywhere else to enjoy my free time. I remember about all the times how I lost a lot of money with the resulting misery and lowered self-esteem it caused. Inevitably, there's always that other voice that says, "this time will be different; you may win and it will be rewarding...." But the stronger voice says, you know this has happened too many times to believe that....most of all, I think about whether the risk of losing a lot of money and its terrible aftermath is worth the prospect that you may win a little and get some "free" money.......I have to think it's really not worth it....and happily and victoriously, I go another day without gambling.

58gambling,
I get those same voices too. I think it is the evil one, with its temptation, coming to tempt us.
We need to have a strong belief system so that we do not succumb to this.
I guess what makes us stronger are the experiences and lessons we have learned in the past.