Do You Have a Gambling Problem, a Love Problem, or a Drug Problem? Yes.


By M. Alexander

Yesterday, I went to a Gambling symposium at The Courtyard Marriott.  I went with two other Beit T’shuvah residents to speak to a room of 30 therapists about compulsive gambling.  I was different than resident A and resident B.  They came to Beit T’Shuvah purely for this addiction, while gambling was the furthest thing from my mind when I entered treatment haggard and dope-sick.  But then the head of the Right Action Gambling Program approached me and asked if I’ve ever gambled compulsively.  Of course I had.  If someone asked me if I had ever exhibited symptoms of overeating, codependency, or love addiction I would have answered in the same way.  I am an addict, pure and simple; I will avoid pain at any cost, I will escape into anything that takes me away from my projected pain of the human condition.

Though I haven’t gambled compulsively in 5 years and I did not think it to be a problem at the time, I believe that now that I am abstinent from drugs and alcohol, another addiction is more likely than ever to rear its ugly head and plunge me back into the depths of isolation and desolation.    I am seeking treatment for my life problem, not my heroin problem.  I need to learn how to cope with life on life’s terms, without the aid of any external solution.  Resident A, Resident B, and I are all the same; we are addicts, we just found a different solution to the same problem.

The Right Action Gambling Program at Beit T’Shuvah, in conjunction with UCLA and The State of California’s Office of Problem Gambling has treated over 50 gamblers and is among the first residential programs to to offer this treatment in the state. For more information contact Mike Konheim at (310)204-5200 ex.252.

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4 thoughts on “Do You Have a Gambling Problem, a Love Problem, or a Drug Problem? Yes.

  1. Anyone often prepare the best exciting articles. So you constantly apparently get bad/boring issues and also flip these people directly into exciting/interesting elements. I’m a audience for all his life!

  2. I’ve had so much trouble communicating the path I want to be on, but I think you said it for me.

    “I am seeking treatment for my life problem, not my x problem.”

    That is what my challenge is, life, not my intoxicant of choice….

  3. Wow,can this be samatha i dont think i have to be has happy as i am today,my profound gratitude go to the great Dr Ogun Orele of our time that made me happy the way i am today.

    since the last five month i have been looking for the real and trusted spell cast who can help me out with my problem unilt i find templespelltimer@gmail.com who told me that there is no problem in this life that has no SOLUTION, and he ask me what i want him to do for me and i told him a girl dont allow me to derive joy from my Husband and when ever me and my Husband are together,if she call my Husband will live me alone and go out for two three day without him not calling me and when he comes back if i question him,he will beat me up.But today i am happy that with the help of Dr ogun he do what ever i want him to do and give me all his attention.

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