How To Become a non-gambler. Done gambling, now walking free. Gotten over it, with help of a psychologist who fed me information I hadn't considered for myself at the time. Still took another couple of years of relapses after that to get to a point of understanding that allowed me to suddenly walk away from the whole thing.

Although it is my personal opinion that especially the pokies are a dreadful development fueled by Aristocrat's (the gambling machine maker) insatiable profit hunger, I must say that the whole thing is of course an expression of general greed attitude both amongst gambling providers as well as victims.

The gambler wants to win and deeply believes he or she can win their money back but becomes really addicted to something other than gambling.... I found personally that I was actually addicted to the feeling of doom after a gambling session. Trying to relieve that feeling the next time by succeeding to win some money. But it will never be enough money even if you win thousands because you are more addicted to wanting to win than you are being satisfied by actually winning anything.

Consider this: when you walk into a casino, you are exposed to all they can throw at your senses to get you to play the games. But your senses are actually troubled like by anesthesia. You need to stay focused on what is going on and what you are doing in there. You must "get it" what you are doing to yourself, wasting all this time and money - for what? For learning about yourself, For learning that you can grow and overcome the evil only by loving it. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that "evil" it's just the shadow part of your lighter self.

The trick is that when you find yourself thinking about going in there all you have to do is STOP for a second - and the walk away in then opposite direction. Build a new habit just for fun: walk past the casino door with a smile, knowing that you don't have to go in there if you don't want to. Nobody is making you gamble...

The gambling machines and casinos are designed to make THEM money not you... Think about it, it is their business, their cash cow. YOU are their cash cow, to be precise.

When I finally realized what was going on I was able to let go of it all, to make a choice. My choice. I thought of my loosings as study fees and finally learned the lesson. The casino always wins - gamblers only sometimes win. More money is made by the casinos than they pay out - or else they would go broke. Never needed to go back again (except once when I wanted to know if I would have the same old adrenaline reaction. I put in 10 bucks and felt the horrible "excitement" flooding my brain again. I was able to smile about it though, I took my $10 winnings and I walked outta there 5 minutes later. That was over 3 years ago now.

I believe that like any compulsive behavior you cannot actually control it. Controlling means resisting and that just makes it stronger than you. To heal and be able to move on, you have to reach a point of understanding and self-compassion. In other words, you must learn to love thyself, warts and all, and only then will you be able to set yourself free.

This goes for any sort of "addiction" like smoking or other compulsive or habitual behaviors. Only then do you actually have a choice in the matter. Which choice you make will always be up to you. As soon as you blame a pokie machine or any substance for your misery you are making yourself the victim of that which you blame.

Good luck to anyone grappling with such a problem, be it gambling, drinking, eating, procrastination, drugs, anger or smoking. Know that freedom is just around the corner. You are your own freedom.

With kind respect and deep understanding for all of you walking your path,
Dimitri